Delhi Daredevils entered this match with two back-to-back wins and an eight-match home losing streak with the aim of extending the former and breaking the latter. But what happened at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Monday was exactly opposite. Daredevils lost to Kolkata Knight Riders by 6 wickets for their ninth successive loss at home.
Chasing 147, KKR captain Gautam Gambhir played a calm and composed innings of 60 to ensure that his team didn't face any hiccups in achieving this middling target but couldn't stay there to hit the winning runs getting out two balls before Ryan ten Doeschate whips one ball towards backward square leg for the two runs that mattered the most. Gambhir was helped by Yusuf Pathan (40 off 26 balls) and Suryakumar Yadav (24 off 16 balls) in setting up KKR's third win in four matches.
Daredevils' innings clearly emphasised how heavily their batting depends on JP Duminy. Since joiing the team in 2014, Duminy has been their most reliable batsman and on Monday once again the importance of his success at the top was felt by the Daredevils. He got out in the fifth over while trying to sweep Sunil Narine and it eventually proved to be the turning point of the match. After his departure, Daredevils batsmen struggled to build partnerships. It was evident from the fact that there wasn't a single fifty-run partnership.
Yadav express
KKR have Umesh Yadav to thank for this. From the first ball that hit DD opener Mayank Agarwal on the thigh till the last ball when Angelo Mathews tried in vain to get few more runs for his team and got out, Umesh was spot on. At the end of the innings, his figures read 4 overs, 18 runs and 2 wickets - a brilliant spell in Twenty20 cricket.
Thanks to his spell, and the contribution from other KKR bowlers, Daredevils could only reach 146. There were a couple of 30s and 20s but none of the Daredevils batsmen stayed long enough (or wasn't let to do so) to do some damage to the opposition's plans. In fact, whenever a budding partnership posed some threat, it was KKR who managed to find a break, either by their own genius or the silliness of DD batsmen. Barring the punishment that Sunil Narine got in his last two overs, it was a smooth sailing for Knight Riders.
The only time DD looked like having any sort of chance in this match was when Dominic Joseph Muthuswami took two wickets - Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey — in one over. But captain Gambhir's presence at one end kept KKR on track, something that DD missed from their captain in this match.
Brief Scores
Delhi Daredevils: 146 for 8 in 20 overs (Manoj Tiwary 32; Umesh Yadav 2/18) lose to Kolkata Knight Riders: 147 for 4 wickets in 18.1 overs (Gautam Gambhir 60; Domnic Muthuswami 2/18) by 6 wickets.