JOIN USKnights jump to third place
Continuing their supremacy at home, defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders rode on Piyush Chawla’s match-winning four-wicket haul to beat Delhi Daredevils by 13 runs in a lop-sided IPL cricket match at the Eden Gardens here on Thursday.
DD’s pursuit of 172 was given a severe blow when the Chawla (4/32) claimed three wickets — Kedar Jadhav, Yuvraj Singh and JP Duminy — in two overs to reduce them to 111/5 in the 16th over as the visitors could never recover from those setbacks and were restricted to 158/6.
This was DD’s seventh loss of the season as they slipped to seventh position in the eighth team table with eight points from 11 matches and their hopes to qualify for the last four are all but over.
With a second successive win at home, KKR (13 points), on the other hand, brightened their playoff hopes as they jumped past Royal Challengers Bangalore to occupy third place.
Earlier, Yusuf Pathan once again held KKR’s innings together with his 42 off 24 balls (3x4, 3x6) before Johan Botha blasted 17 from five balls (4x4) in the last over to lift them to a fighting 171/7. Playing with an extra bowler after Sunil Narine got a clearance from the Board with a final warning, a relieved KKR re-jigged their batting order and sent Chawla at No 4 and the leg-spinner contributed a useful 22 from 19 balls.
Required to score at 8.6 in pursuit of 172, DD promoted Manoj Tiwary to open the innings but the local lad failed to deliver.
Even as Shreyas Iyer (40) looked at ease at the other end, Tiwary played as many as 15 dot balls during his painful 28-ball stay and by the time he departed after Chawla gave the first breakthrough, the run-rate had shot up to 10.80.
It also meant that Iyer, who looked fluent with 40 from 34 balls with three fours and two sixes, panicked at the other end before being foxed by Hogg’s guile and dragged the ball onto his off-stump.
Iyer looked impressive in his fifth 40 score — the first from an uncapped player — but Tiwary’s innings triggered DD’s slow downfall as KKR tightened the noose with their battery of spinners.
Chawla gave a twin blow in the 14th over dismissing Kedar Jadhav (10) and Yuvraj Singh (0) in four balls as skipper Duminy ran out of partners and became the leg-spinner’s fourth victim.
score board
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Robin Uthappa lbw Mishra 32, Gautam Gambhir c Jadhav b Zaheer 12, Manish Pandey b Yuvraj 22, Piyush Chawla c Tiwary b Morkel 22, Yusuf Pathan c Tiwary b Tahir 42, Andre Russell c Mathews b Tahir 5, Surya Kumar Yadav (not out) 7, Johan Botha (run out) 17; Extras (LB-3, W-9) 12; Total: (7 wkts, 20 overs) 171.
Fall of wickets: 1-38, 2-63, 3-82, 4-108, 5-128, 6-153, 7-171.
Bowling: Zaheer Khan 4-0-34-1, Albie Morkel 3-0-25-1, Jean-Paul Duminy 1-0-16-0, Amit Mishra 4-0-20-1, Imran Tahir 4-0-46-2, Angelo Mathews 2-0-13-0, Yuvraj Singh 2-0-14-1.
delhi daredevils: Manoj Tiwary c Yadav b Chawla 25, Shreyas Iyer b Hogg 40, JP Duminy c Yadav b Chawla 25, Kedar Jadhav c Botha b Chawla 10, Yuvraj Singh c Russell b Chawla 0, Angelo Mathews b Russell 22, Saurabh Tiwary (not out) 24, Albie Morkel (not out) 5; Extras (LB-2, W-5) 7; Total: (6 wkts, 20 overs) 158.
Fall of wickets: 1-63, 2-71, 3-96, 4-96, 5-111, 6-143.
Bowling: Umesh Yadav 4-0-29-0, Andre Russell 4-0-24-1, Sunil Narine 4-0-30-0, Piyush Chawla 4-0-32-4, Brad Hogg 3-0-27-1, Johan Botha 1-0-14-0.