New Delhi: Manish Pandey and Yusuf Pathan helped pull off the hijack of the tournament as Kolkata Knight Riders edged home past Delhi Daredevils by four wickets and one ball in hand at the Kotla here on Monday.
The result also took Gautam Gambhir’s team to the top of the IPL-10 standings on eight points from their five games, while Delhi stay third for now with four from four.
Chasing a none too impressive 169, Kolkata were rocked by an early three-wicket burst that underlined Delhi’s credentials as one of the more dangerous bowling attacks in this year’s league. Pandey though kept his head to see them past the line at 169/6 in 19.5 overs.
The wily Zaheer Khan saw off Chris de Grandhomme and opposite number Gautam Gambhir in his first two overs while Pat Cummins snaffled Robin Uthappa thanks to a delicious bit of wicketkeeping by Rishab Pant, who went way to his right to pull in an edge. In 17 legal deliveries, the Knight Riders were 21/3.
Earlier, it took a blistering cameo from Pant (38, 16b, 2x4, 4x6) to put the skates under a becalmed Delhi to see them to 168/7 against some accurate stuff from Sunil Narine and Nathan Coulter- Nile.
Delhi got off to a fast start thanks to Sanju Samson and Sam Billings who put on 53 runs in 6.1 overs but Karun Nair’s 27-ball 21 that had just the one four stalled Delhi at a crucial time between the 10th and 16th overs.
Scorecard
Delhi Daredevils: S. Samson c Uthappa b U. Yadav 39, S. Billings c Uthappa b Coulter-Nile 21, K. Nair b Coulter-Nile 21, S. Iyer (run out) 26, R. Pant c Gambhir b Coulter-Nile 38, A. Mathews b Narine 1, C. Morris c U. Yadav b Woakes 16, P. Cummins (not out) 3, Mohammed Shami (not out) 0. Extras: (b 1, w 2) 3. Total: (for 7 wkts, in 20 overs) 168.
FoW: 1-53, 2-63, 3-106, 4-110, 5-145, 6-153, 7-167.
Bowling: Coulter-Nile 4-0-22-3 (1w), Woakes 4-0-31-1, U. Yadav 4-0-53-1, Narine 4-0-20-1 (1w), Kuldeep Yadav 3-0-29-0, de Grandhomme 1-0-12-0.
Kolkata Knight Riders: G. Gambhir c Mathews b Khan 14, C. de Grandhomme c Billings b Khan 1, R. Uthappa c Pant b Cummins 4, M. Pandey (not out) 69, Y. Pathan c & b Morris 59, S. Yadav c Khan b Cummins 7, C. Woakes st Pant b Mishra 3, S. Narine (not out) 1. Extras: (lb 3, w 8) 11. Total: (for 6 wkts, in 19.5 overs) 169.
FoW: 1-5, 2-19, 3-21, 4-131, 5-152, 6-160.
Bowling: Khan 4-0-28-2, Cummins 4-0-39-2 (1w), Morris 4-0-30-1, Mishra 2.5-0-26-1 (1w), Shami 3-0-28-0 (2w), Mathews 2-0-15-0
