Match Review of Delhi Daredevils vs Kolkatta Knight Riders

Indian Premier League - Match review

Date : 28th April 2011 Match No. : 33rd
Teams : Delhi Daredevils vs Kolkatta Knight Riders
Venue : Firoz Shah Kotla, New Delhi
Umpires : P.R. Reifffel and R.J. Tucker Third Umpire: S. Asnani
Toss : Delhi Daredevils won the toss and elected to field.

Playing XI Delhi Daredevils	Playing XI Kolkatta Knight Riders
Virender Sehwag (c)	Jacques Kallis
David Warner	Gautam Gambhir (c)
Irfan Pathan	S. Goswami
Venugopal Rao	Eoin Morgan
James Hopes	Manoj Tiwari
Naman Ojha	Yusuf Pathan
Morne Morkel	Bret Lee
Ajit Agarkar	L. Balaji
Umesh Yadav	Ryan Ten Doeshate
Travis Birt	Iqbal Abdullah
Yogesh Nagar	Jaidev Unadtkat

On 28th April evening, it looked like all roads of Delhi were leading to Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, as there was a match between Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders. Three reasons as to why it was a high voltage match. Firstly, two openers of Delhi Daredevils Season 1 through 3, and best friends were playing opposite each other for the 1st time and that too in the Captain's capacity. Secondly, the two Pathan brothers playing as opponents. And of course, last but not the least, the Delhi boy Shah Rukh Khan, owner of Knight Riders was expected to be there to cheer for his team.

With a capacity of over 45,000, the stadium was completely jam packed. It was a delight to watch a match under the flood lights, with a huge scoreboard and DJ playing live. The crowd was very enthusiastic, but completely confused as to which team they are supporting as they had their favorites in both.

Both teams made few changes in their playing XI. Delhi brought in Ajit Agarkar and Travis Birt are in place of Mathew Wade and Ashok Dinda. On the other hand, Kolkatta made three changes, Brett Lee, Ryan ten Doeshate and Sriwats Goswami were in.

Delhi skipper, Virender Sehwag, won the toss and invited Kolkatta Night Riders to bat. His reason of electing to field first was to restrict Kolkata early and then chase the target Put into bat, Kolkatta lost Jacques Kallis early, Irfan Pathan though has not been in best of his bowling forms, got rid of the dangerous Kallis at an individual score of 11. The skipper Gambhir walked to the crease at a team score of 29/1. Gambhir had a point to prove against the old franchise Delhi Daredevils and looked confident and determined to put up a solid performance. He tried to build up a partnership with the other opener S Goswami until the later got out, and the Knight Riders were now 42-2.

Gautam Gambhir along with Manoj Tiwari consolidated the innings. Once Gambhir got out after making 18 runs of 19 balls, Yusuf Pathan came in to bat. Yusuf Pathan got out cheaply at an individual score of 5. And guess what, who took his catch at the boundary, none other than, brother Irfan Pathan. The crowd was cheering every moment of this live drama on the field. The highlight of the Knight Riders innings was, that all the top 5 batsman contributed to the scorecard with Manoj Tiwari sticking to the crease till the end and ensuring that the team puts up a defendable score on the board. Tiwari made 61 of 46 balls and remained not out till the end. The Knight Riders managed to reach a total of 148/7 in their allotted 20 overs.

The Knight Riders have been performing consistently under the Captaincy of Gautam Gambhir. They have had couple of very close finishes where the luck did not favor them. Playing on the home ground in front of the home crowd is always an added advantage. The Daredevils opened their innings confidently, until Balaji forced the Aussi opener David Warner to get on the back foot and got him clean bold at an individual score of just 2. It was a shocker for not only Delhi Daredevils but for skipper himself too. But Sehwag looked in good form and was hitting in all directions. He took the responsibility on his shoulders along with James Hopes and played some good looking shots. Hardly did the Delhi crowd realize that this responsibility was only short lived. After facing a bouncer from a new comer pacer Jaidev Unadkat's, on the next ball itself, the Delhi captain gave away his wicket and was caught at Fine Leg by Balaji at an individual score of 34.

As assumed rightly by all, once again Delhi Daredevils struggled to arrange their batting order. Irfan Pathan, a $1.9 million all rounder was sent up the order, all he could do was to create pressure for him and the team. He was not able to hit the ball and when tried to do so, it resulted in a sky high catch instead of clearing the ropes. He was dismissed by the spinner Abdullah on the individual score of 9 runs. Another victim of Abdullah was James Hopes who was struggling on the pitch with muscle pull and got David Warner as his runner, but eventually got out on the modest score of 25 in 30 balls. A fine throw from Brett Lee got the most impressing and promising batsman Venugopal Rao out on the score of 19. Yogesh Nagar showed some batting skills in between.

Now, Delhi needed 26 runs of last two overs which was quite doable. At this stage, Bret Lee took the charge and turned the game around with fine spell and won the match for Kolkatta Knight Riders easily. They won the match convincingly by 17 runs and placed Delhi Daredevils on the last on the points table again. It looks like a goodbye time for Delhi Daredevils from IPL season 4.

The Awards:
Man of the match: Manoj Tiwari was awarded man of the match for the fine inning of 61 in 47 balls with 2 boundaries and 3 sixes.

Maximum Sixes: 4
Manoj Tiwari was awarded for the 3 sixes.

Kingfisher Fair Play Award
Chennai Super Kings tops the chart

Orange Cap (The leading run scorer) Sachin Tendulkar- Mumbai Indians

Purple Cap (The leading wicket taker) Lasith Mallinga- Mumbai Indians

Question of the day:
Does Virender Sehwag carry an attitude of a Captain?



Last Updated on 5/2/2011