IPL 2018: Match 13, KKR vs DD, Review - Knight Riders annihilate the visitors by 71 runs

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have defeated Delhi Daredevils by a whopping 71 runs in a one-sided encounter at the Eden Gardens. It was not a happy homecoming for Gautam Gambhir as he could only score 8 runs with the bat. But the damage was done in the first innings itself by Andre Russell who smashed 41 runs off just 12 deliveries even as Nitish Rana whacked 59 runs also. However, with the ball in hand, Kuldeep Yadav and Sunil Narine were the chief tormentors for DD as they shared 6 wickets between them.

Delhi Daredevils skipper Gautam Gambhir was once again lucky to win the toss and opted to bowl first as they included Chris Morris in the playing XI at the expense of Daniel Christian. The hosts, however, picked Tom Curran over Mitchell Johnson after losing their last game also in front of their home crowd.

Uthappa tees off

Trent Boult started off the proceedings extremely well by bowling a maiden over to Chris Lynn and also scalped Sunil Narine in his next over who was back to opening the innings. It was a perfect start for the visitors but little did they knew that Robin Uthappa will wreck havoc. He took full advantage of the powerplay and deposited Shahbaz Nadeem into the stands twice. He was in the mood and raced away to 35 quickly but the same bowler picked his wicket as he top-edged an across the line shot.

Rana and Russell take over

Uthappa’s wicket slowed down the scoring rate as Nitish Rana and Lynn concentrated on picking singles. Everything was in control for DD but things went out of hands when the former started to smash the ball. Meanwhile, Lynn to muscled a few during his quiet stay in the middle but Mohammed Shami’s quicker one into his body proved to be his undoing and soon the skipper Dinesh Karthik followed him after a cameo as KKR stared at yet another poor show from their batsmen.

But very few expected that there was a certain Andre Russell who could take the game away from them. That is what happened as Shami was taken apart absolutely mercilessly. He hit Shami for as many as 5 massive sixes as it was the lack of awareness from Shami cost them a lot of runs. He was clobbered for 42 runs in his last couple of overs as KKR raced towards 200 easily. However, Rana too was playing a special knock at the other end shaping himself beautifully to play some breathtaking strokes.

DD bowlers comeback at the death again

The partnership gave KKR the real hope of getting to 220 almost as the score after 17 overs read more than 170. It all started with a perfect yorker from Trent Boult in the 18th over which castled Russell and then the slide began and much like their last game, Delhi staged a comeback. Rahul Tewatia once again bowled well and proved his worth giving only 1 run in the last over. He also picked 3 wickets in the process to restrict the home side to 200 runs after 20 overs as only 23 runs were scored in the last three overs.

Poor start to the chase

Piyush Chawla was entrusted with the first over in the defence of a solid total by the captain Karthik and he took the priced scalp of Jason Roy. The match-winner of the last game lost his balanced off a wide delivery and the wicket-keeper was quick to disturb the furniture. Shreyas Iyer followed in the next over as Rana took a smart catch at slip. Shivam Mavi, India U19 star, then hurried the former KKR skipper Gambhir onto a cut shot as he inside edged it only to shatter his own stumps to leave DD at 24/3.

Pant and Maxwell threaten but in vain

This is where Rishabh Pant and Glenn Maxwell got together and formed a partnership with the former taking the attack brutally towards the KKR bowlers. He batted cleverly even after the end of powerplay and found the gap well. Even Maxwell took a special liking to Tom Curran and Kuldeep Yadav hitting his trademark sixes on the leg side. But both of them got out at the wrong time for their team as Kuldeep scalped them both to eventually end the game.

The wheels came off soon after their wickets as Sunil Narine scalped two more all-rounders Chris Morris and Vijay Shankar in the next over. Delhi Daredevils somehow played 14 overs of the innings and were eventually bundled out for 129 runs losing the game by a whopping 71 runs. The chase never got off for them as they kept losing wickets and the credit has to go to KKR bowlers.

KKR seems to be back on track after this resounding victory but Daredevils were given a hiding as they will have to think about the strategy soon after losing their 3rd game in four matches.

Shivam Mavi impressed Vaughan the most!

Shivam Mavi is bowling 145 kph …. he is 19 yrs old …. !!!! #IPL … He will play for #India …. Very soon …

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) April 16, 2018

Brief Scores

Kolkata Knight Riders 200/9 after 20 overs (N Rana 59, A Russell 41; R Tewatia 3/18)

Delhi Daredevils 132 after 15 overs (G Maxwell 47, R Pant 43; S Narine 3/18, K Yadav 3/32)

Result: Kolkata Knight Riders won by 71 runs

Man of the Match: Nitish Rana

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