Coming from a loss against the Mumbai Indians – courtesy of a phenomenal anchoring innings from Rohit Sharma and explosive finishing shots at the end from Pollard meant that KKR had their 2nd loss of the season. Their 7th match in the tournament was against the Delhi Daredevils – a team that frankly is starting to look a formidable unit, they do not depend on any individual and it is ideally what we call a “complimenting unit” where each player contributes to the balance in the side.
| Delhi Daredevils | vs | Kolkata Knight Riders |
| Date | 30 Apr 2016 | |
| Venue | Feroz Shah Kotla | |
| 186/8 (20) | 159/10 (18.3) | |
Delhi Daredevils won by 27 runs |
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KKR won the toss and chose to bowl. They made 3 changes – Holder, Hogg and Chawla IN and Lynn, Shakib and Unadkat OUT.
Delhi Daredevils on the other hand made 4 : Brathwaite, Sam billings, Shreyas and Shami Ahmed IN. Duminy missed out due to being under the weather.
The Delhi Daredevils innings got to a wobbling start – losing 2 wickets for 2 runs, the KKR looked in a situation where they could restrict the Delhi side to a very cheap total. Samson too couldn’t show resistance and lost his wicket after making 15, Delhi was in deep trouble at 32-3.
What followed was a tremendous display of apt batting under a pressure situation from Sam Billings (making his debut for Delhi Daredevils, English player) along with Karun Nair, whose been performing extremely well in Indian domestic circuit.
It was the 105 run partnership between the two which gave the inning some momentum and guided Delhi’s total to 186 – with explosive blows from Brathwaite concluding the innings, playing to his potential first time since his famous innings against England in t20 WC final, in which he smashed 4 sixes on a trot in the penultimate over of the final. Brathwaite made 34 off 11 which stretched Delhi’s total to 186. Russell grabbed 3 crucial wickets and was the only KKR bowler to go under the economy rate of below 7.
In it’s chase, the KKR failed to get off to a good start which has been so vital in their winning performances thus far in the tournament – when Uthappa and Gambhir click, so does the team. Gambhir went for 6 and followed was a shocking move from KKR, promoting Chawla to bat at 1st down. The move while gives an indication into the out of the box thinking in the KKR dugout did not formulate into any success and Chawla went for 8.
KKR’s chase lacked any formidable partnership which is crucial in a chase of 180+. Uthappa seemed like the only batsman that was willing to invest some time at the crease and aim towards keeping the scoreboard ticking, which could be capitalized upon in the finishing overs.
Pathan’s 10, Surya Kumar’s 21, Russell’s 17 – highlights the failure on the part of KKR’s batsman to apply themselves and perhaps play that one innings alongside Uthappa which kept the required run rate in check.
At 151-5 in 17 overs with Uthappa and Russell still at the crease kept KKR’s hopes alive but a disastrous collapse and a show of quality death bowling from Delhi Daredevils restricted KKR to 159 all out in 18.3 overs, the KKR failed to even play it’s full quota of 20 overs.
The Delhi Daredevils have raced to 2nd in the points table whereas Kolkata Knight Riders fall back to 3rd. Gujarat Lions are leading the points table.
KKR vs DD Video Recap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdI0hqRouV8
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