Press Trust of India
Kolkata, April 10: A clinical Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) handed Delhi Daredevils (DD) a nine-wicket drubbing to begin their IPL-IX campaign in style here Sunday.
KKR shot out a lacklustre Delhi for 98 in 17.4 overs before cantering home in 14.1 overs with openers skipper Gautam Gambhir (38 n o, 41b, 5×4) and Robin Uthappa (35, 33. 7×4) sharing a brisk 69-run stand. Two straight drives, one each off Zaheer Khan and Chris Morris by Uthappa were the shots of the day. Gambhir and Uthappa made batting look easy during the chase as the team completed a convincing win.
Andre Russell (3/24) and the ‘baby’ of the KKR side, 46-year-old Brad Hogg (3/19) were the star bowlers for the home team after Gambhir put the opposition in. They were well backed up by John Hastings (2/6) and Piyush Chawla (2/21).
While the two-time champions made an ideal start to the season, a fresh squad, mentored by Rahul Dravid, did not change the fortunes of Delhi who finished seventh out of eight teams in 2015.
Earlier, a brilliant bowling effort enabled the Knights to dismiss Daredevils for a paltry total. Pacers Russell and Hastings triggered the early collapse before the spin duo of Hogg and Chawla came to the party.
Put in, Delhi Daredevils raced to 24 in just 13 balls with KKR having some initial hiccups. Quinton de Kock looked imperious when he unsettled Umesh Yadav’s line with successive four and a six in the bowler’s first over.
The hosts however, bounced back in the third over with Russell giving twin breakthroughs of De Kock (17) and Shreyas Iyer (0) before Hasting tightened things up the other end.
Introduced only at midway stage, KKR’s spin armoury, without their ace weapon Sunil Narine, lived up to the expectation as Hogg and Chawla foxed a clueless looking Daredevils batting line-up.
Pawan Negi (11) and Sanju Samson (15) tried to repair the damage with a 20-run partnership but Hogg brilliantly set up the former with two dot balls before deceiving the left-hander with his flight to have him stumped.
Coming at No 7, Carlos Brathwaite received a thunderous applause from the KKR supporters as the World T20 hero lived up to the hype with a second-ball six but only to be trapped plumb deceived by a Chawla googly two balls later.
Brief scores
DD 98 all out (Quinton de Kock 17, Brad Hogg 3/19, Andre Russell 3/24) lost to KKR 99 for 1 (Gautam Gambhir 38 n o, Robin Uthappa 35, Amit Mishra 1/11) by nine wickets
