IPL 7 Match Report: DD vs. KKR

The Delhi Daredevils secured their first win in this season’s IPL with a thrilling run chase against a Kolkata Knight Riders side in the second game of the day in Dubai. While Kolkata had made a strong start to the tournament with a convincing win over defending champions Mumbai Indians in the opening match of the tournament, the Delhi side had slumped to an emphatic defeat against a rampant Bangalore in their first game.

Coming into the match, Delhi were without star Kevin Petersen, who is still sidelined with a finger injury. In his absence, Dinesh Karthik continues to lead the side. Kolkata won the toss and elected to bat first, with skipper Gautam Gambhir opening the batting along with the dependable Jacques Kallis. However, Delhi had come prepared with a game plan of their own, and managed to strike first.

Mohammed Shami, who started off with a wide, dismissed Jacques Kallis with the first legal delivery of the game. In the very next over, Gambhir perished for his second duck in as many games after some smart bowling from Nathan Coulter-Nile, who got him to nick a ball that was going down the leg side to JP Duminy, stationed at leg slip for exactly that shot.

Some tight bowling from both seamers ensured that the Kolkata run rate was well under control, but the bowlers were unable to make another breakthrough, and Manish Pandey, who had a great game against Mumbai, started to build a partnership with Robin Uthappa. While Uthappa was content to rotate the strike, Pandey started to go after the bowlers and ensured that Delhi’s run rate was hovering around the seven run mark.

However, Pandey perished in the 11th over for 48, bowled by Shahbaz Nadeem while trying to play one shot too many. Shakib al Hasan was the next man in for Kolkata, and he contributed a 30 not out score, playing a few big shots late on in the innings. Uthappa was the main threat, and scored a well-crafted 55 before finally perishing in the 17th over to Jaidev Unadkat. Yusuf Pathan struck a couple of lusty hits in his brief cameo and Suryakumar Yadav came in for the last over and struck two boundaries to propel Kolkata to a very respectable 166 for 5.

With the onset of the evening, the Delhi batsmen came out to try and chase down the score. They suffered a setback in the very first over, however, with Murali Vijay perishing while trying to take a non-existent run. His opening partner, Mayank Agarwal went after the bowling from the start itself, and scored a quickfire 26 before falling.

With the Delhi Daredevils on 39 for 2, Ross Taylor was next man in. The Kiwi batsman never really got going though, and departed for a meagre score of 6. With Delhi in quite a bit of trouble, JP Duminy walked out to join his skipper in the middle. The South African batsman was in good form in the previous game, and he continued in the same manner, busily rotating the strike and picking up the occasional boundary. Along with Karthik, he ensured that the run rate never got out of control. The skipper scored a stylish 56 before finally perishing to the excellent Sunil Narine.

As the run rate climbed higher, Manoj Tiwary holed out while trying to manufacture runs, and the Delhi chase seemed all but over. However, JP Duminy had been steadily playing himself in and finally unleashed himself in the 18th over, bowled by Morne Morkel. Some breathtaking strokes yielded 21 runs from the over, leaving the equation at 11 required off 12 balls.

Sunil Narine then bowled a brilliant 19th over under pressure and conceded just 5 runs, setting up a thrilling finish with 6 required to win off the last over. The ball was thrown to Piyush Chawla, with Neesham on strike. Chawla bowled a tight line, cramping the batsman first ball. On the second ball, Neesham went for the big hit, but only found Yusuf Pathan at deep midwicket. However, the batsmen had managed to cross over before the catch was taken and Duminy was on strike for the last four balls.

He only needed one though, as the third ball was on the leg stump, and Duminy swiveled to lift the ball over the long leg fence for a maximum, also reaching his fifty with that hit. Delhi celebrated their first win in eight games, and Duminy was handed the man of the match award for his match winning innings of 52 not out.