IPL 9 Match 2 Review: Kolkata Knight Riders trounce Delhi Daredevils by 9 wickets

Kolkata Knight Riders gave a winning start to their IPL 9 campaign after they registered an easy 9 wicket win over the highly incompetent Delhi Daredevils at their home ground Eden Gardens, Kolkata. KKR chased down the pea-sized target of 99 runs set by Delhi Daredevil who batted disastrously in the first innings.

The revamped DD side which boasts of some great young talents hoped for a turnaround in their fortunes this season after having played awfully in the past season. The way Shreyas Iyer and Quinton de Kock opened the innings gave some indications of a positive start to the new season.

Iyer scooped a boundary off the first ball of the match to kickstart the game. His opening partner, South African wicket keeper-batsman Quinton de Kock also started off very positively. In just a matter of a couple of over, Delhi Daredevils were 23/0. It appeared that the young guns were up for a great show tonight.

But, KKR speedster Andre Russell had other plans. After being hammered for 13 runs in his first, the West Indian removed both the openers in the third over of the match. Quinton de Kock tried to be over aggressive and mistimed a short delivery straight into the hands of Yusuf Pathan. Three balls later, Russell fired in a 144 kph rocket which trapped Iyer leg before. The highest run-getter of the Ranji season was back in the hut.

Russell did not stop and landed another blow to the Daredevils when he snapped up the wicket of Mayank Agarwal in his following over. The inexperienced Daredevils batting order looked very vulnerable and continued to crumble. Karun Nair also fell victim to John Hastings before the end of the powerplay. Daredevils after being 23/0 initially were at 35/4 after 6 overs.

After the fast bowlers, it KKR’s strong spin bowling attack which rattled them completely. World T20 hero Carlos Braithwaite joined IPL millionaire Pawan Negi in the middle. The giant Trinidadian smacked a six to open his account and stitched a small 20 run stand with Negi before the latter fell in the 10 over Brad Hogg. Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla then unpicked Braithwaite and Chris Morris in back to back overs. Hogg looked were difficult to counter and was baffling the batsmen. Sanju Samson and Amit Mishra fell to his skillful bowling as the Delhi Daredevils innings folded for a very disappointing 98 runs in 17.4 overs.

KKR, in reply, started off breezily with Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir began to attack without any second thoughts. Both raced towards the target at a swift pace. But, unfortunately, the pair could not complete the job on their own after Uthappa was dismissed by Amit Mishra in the 10th over. A crispy stroke from the middle bat, unfortunately, found Chris Morris at the long-off and put an end to the entertaining partnership.

But, there was not much of a task left from there on. Manish Pandey and Gautam Gambhir effortlessly smashed the remaining runs in the matter few overs as KKR registered a comprehensive 9 wicket win.

Brief Scores:

Delhi Daredevils: 98 in 17.4 (Sanju Samson 15; Brad Hogg 3/19)

Kolkata Knight Riders: 99/1 in 14.1 (Gautam Gambhir 38; Amit Mishra 1/11)

Man of the Match: Andre Russell