Monday, April 20, 2015

Team effort helps KKR overcome DD with ease

Gautam Gambhir led KKR to a victory at his home ground of FerozShah Kotla over Delhi Daredevils who suffered their ninth straight loss in front of their own fans. The KKR bowlers did the job early on, with Umesh Yadav, Morkel and Piyush Chawla grabbing two wickets each to restrict DD to just 146/8. Gambhir, Suryakumar Yadav and Yusuf Pathan did their jobs well as KKR won by 6 wickets, their third in four matches. For DD, none of the players stood out, especially the batsmen who couldn't convert their starts into big scores.

                                      Gambhir, Delhi Ranji team skipper, knows this ground better than most, but he himself suggested that he had never seen a wicket like the one on offer yesterday. With both captains unsure how the pitch would play, the toss was crucial. In what was a sign of things to come, it was the KKR skipper who made the right call and decided to ball. The fast bowling duo of Morne Morkel and Umesh Yadav steamed in and the former accounted for Mayank Agarwal in the second over itself. Sunil Narine got the wicket of the dangerous JP Duminy.Shreyas Iyer who had done well to get to 31 played a loose shot to Piyush Chawla and got castled. Manoj Tiwary, playing against his former team batted intelligently and was the top scorer for DD with 32. Yuvraj Singh was out stumped in a comical manner, off the bowling off Chawla. Yuvi attempted a sweep and ventured out of the crease without looking where the ball was. Uthappa managed to flick the bails at the second attempt for a crucial blow.Mathews and Kedhar Jadav hit Narine of all people for 31 in his last 9 balls, but couldnt get the others away as DD could only manage 146. Umesh Yadav was the pick of the bowlers with 2/18 in his four overs.

                                      The KKR openers batted with caution knowing the target wasn't daunting, playing shots along the ground. The fifth over bowled by Dominic Joseph, however gave a glimmer of hope for the home crowd as Uthappa and then Manish Pandey was dismissed. But Suryakumar Yadav came in to assist his skipper and put on a 48 run partnership which was ended by Courter Nile. But DD still needed more wickets to pose a challenge and that was never to be. Yusuf Pathan batted sensibly to get near the target. Gambhir, who scored his third halk\f century in four matches, was dismissed with three runs to get, a mere consolation for DD. An easy chase in the end, and a good team effort by KKR.

                                      

No comments:

Post a Comment