Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils emerged as the victors on a double-header on Saturday in the IPL 10.
In the first match between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens, the Gautam Gambhir led Kolkata side defeated the defending champions, handed them their second defeat in this tournament. David Warner, the Sunrisers skipper won the toss and chose to field.
The Knight Riders however didn’t get to the best of starts as they lost their openers- Sunil Narine and Gautam Gambhir within six overs. Out came Robin Uthappa and he batted brilliantly as he scored a stylish 68. He was ably supported by Manish Pandey as KKR ended with 172 runs on the board.
In reply, Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner, the Hyderabad openers put on a cautious 46 run stand before the KKR spinners did the star turn. Yusuf Pathan, coming in to bowl dismissed Dhawan and youngster Kuldeep Yadav took the prizes scalp of skipper Warner.
From thereon, wickets kept falling, but at one point of time, with Yuvraj Singh and Deepak Hooda at the crease, a win looked possible for Hyderabad. But Chris Woakes and Trent Boult dampened their hopes of a victory as the Kolkata side finished off with a 17 run victory to their name.
In the second match of the day at the Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi captain Zaheer Khan won the toss and opted to bat. A good 53 run opening stand between IPL centurion Sanju Samson and Sam Billings put things under their control before two quick wickets fell down.
However, Billings carried on and registered a 55 to his name and some fireworks towards the end by Chris Morris, Corey Anderson and Pat Cummins helped Delhi post a competitive 188 runs on the board.
On the other hand, the chase by Punjab was never on track as they lost their openers- Manan Vohra and Hashim Amla early on in the innings. Wriddhiman Saha was promoted to number 3 but couldn’t make an impact. Eoin Morgan, who got a place in the side today stitched a steady partnership with David Miller but that was to no avail.
Captain Maxwell’s stroke of batting at number 6 didn’t pay off and Punjab, despite some late hitting by Axar Patel, Punjab fell short of the Delhi target by 51 runs. Shahbaaz Nadeem, Chris Morris and Pat Cummins were the star Delhi bowlers, who dented the Punjab run chase.
With this win, Kolkata Knight Riders climbed to the top of the table with six points while Hyderabad are at the fourth place with 4 points. Delhi Daredevils, courtesy this win move up to the third position, with Punjab is in the fifth position.
Summarised scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 172/6 (Robin Uthappa 68, Manish Pandey 46; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/20) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 155/6 (Yuvraj Singh 26, Shikhar Dhawan 23; Chris Woakes 2/49) by 17 runs.
Delhi Daredevils 188/6 (Sam Billings 55, Corey Anderson 39; Varun Aaron 2/45) beat Kings XI Punjab 137/9 (Axar Patel 44, David Miller 24; Chris Morris 3/23) by 51 runs.