KOLKATA:
Shoaib Akhtar produced a magical three-over
opening spell to demolish the Delhi Daredevils
top-order, as Kolkata Knight Riders scripted
a sensational 23-run win in the DLF-Indian Premier
League encounter at the Eden Gardens here on
Tuesday.
For Akhtar, who had to
miss two matches on fitness grounds and was
doubtful even for this tie, it was a memorable
IPL debut. He began in spectacular fashion,
sending back Delhi Daredevil skipper Virender
Sehwag in the second ball of the opening over.
He removed Gautam Gambhir
in his next over and dismissed A.B. de Villiers
and Manoj Tiwary off successive balls in his
third over to be on a hat-trick. Tillekeratne
Dilshan, however, denied Akhtar a hat-trick.
Daredevils fought back
through some dogged batting by Dilshan and
Amit Mishra. The two added 24 for the sixth
wicket to put Daredevils back on track. Just
when it looked like Daredevils was in with
a chance came the dramatic run out of Dilshan
(25, 19b, 5x4). Laxmi Ratan Shukla’s
throw sent the Sri Lankan back.
On target
Farveez Maharoof, who
walked in next, and Mishra played sensibly
to keep the scoreboard ticking and put pressure
on Knight Riders.
It was another superb
throw, this time by bowler Ashok Dinda, that
brought to an end to Maharoof’s innings.
Shukla polished off the tail with a haul of
three of six in five balls. He was also on
a hat-trick but Yomahesh denied him the feat.
An elated Ganguly said
it was one of the fantastic victories in his
career. “It was not easy to come back
and win the match after setting such a small
target on this pitch,” he said.
Earlier, Knight Riders
posted a fighting total against a disciplined
Daredevils attack. Electing to bat, the home
side, buoyed by a steady 48 (44b, 7x4) from
opener Salman Butt and his 40-run association
for the third wicket with David Hussey, reached
133 for six in 20 overs.
The openers — Butt
and Aakash Chopra — began cautiously
against Glenn McGrath and Pradeep Sangwan
to take the scoere to 35 before Chopra went
for 13.
In walked skipper Sourav
Ganguly and he greeted young Yomahesh with
a six off a free hit before becoming his first
victim for seven. A wild swing without getting
into the line meant Ganguly’s wicket
got rattled.
Fruitful partnership
At two down for 47, the
team needed a fruitful partnership when Butt
and Hussey put on 40 runs in 6.2 overs.
Under pressure to get
runs, the lower-order failed, except Shukla
who hit 10 off eight balls.
Hussey was the second
highest scorer with 31 off 31 balls with two
sixes.
Meanwhile, Knight Riders
decided to release five of their fringe players
— Ranadeb Bose, Sourasish Lahiri, Rohan
Banerjee, Yashpal Singh and C. Pujara —
to bring down the size of its contingent to
18 from 23.
The scores: Kolkata Knight
Riders: S. Butt c McGrath b Yomahesh 48, A.
Chopra c Maharoof b Sangwan 13, S. Ganguly
b Yomahesh 7, D. Hussey c Tewari b Maharoof
31, T. Taibu (run out) 7, L.R. Shukla c Gambhir
b Maharoof 10, W. Saha (not out) 5, I. Abdullah
(not out) 1, Extras (lb-3, w-7, nb-1): 11,
Total (for six wkts. in 20 overs): 133.
Fall of wickets: 1-35,
2-47, 3-87, 4-99, 5-119, 6-129.
Delhi Daredevils bowling:
McGrath 4-0-22-0, Sangwan 4-0-29-1, Yomahesh
4-0-34-2, Maharoof 4-0-25-2, Mishra 3-0-13-0,
Sehwag 1-0-7-0.
Delhi Daredevils: G.
Gambhir c Hussey b Akhtar 10, V. Sehwag c
Saha b Akhtar 0, A.B. de Villiers c Taibu
b Akhtar 7, M. Tiwary lbw b Akhtar 9, S. Dhawan
b Dinda 7, T. Dilshan (run out) 25, A. Mishra
c Ishant b Shukla 31, F. Maharoof (run out)
10, V. Yomahesh b Shukla 3, P. Sangwan c Hussey
b Shukla 0, G. McGrath (not out) 0; Extras
(lb-1, w-7): 8; Total (in 17.5 overs): 110.
Fall of wickets:
1-2, 2-17, 3-28, 4-28,
5-43, 6-67, 7-101, 8-105, 9-105.
Kolkata Knight Riders
bowling: Akhtar 3-0-11-4, Ishant 3-0-18-0,
Dinda 4-0-29-1, Ganguly 4-0-23-0, Abdullah
3-0-22-0, Shukla 0.5-0-6-3.
