Kolkata Kept Their Hopes Alive

Kolkata, Apr 7: Kolkata Knight Riders kept their cool in tense situations tonight to overcome the determined effort of Delhi Daredevils in their encounter at Eden Gardens here. Devils finished with 167, fourteen shy of their target of 182 runs.
Virender Sehwag was the highest run getter for the Delhi side, scoring 64 off just 40 deliveries. Skipper Gautam Gambhir too scored 47 off 29 balls. For Kolkata, Ashok Dinda and Ajantha Mendis bowled with great zeal and guile to keep their opponents at bay. Both chipped in with two wickets each.
While batting, a seventy run fourth wicket stand between Manoj Tiwary and Angelo Mathews took Riders’ score past 180.
Mathews (46 off 28 balls) hit some big hits at the end of Kolkata’s innings while Tiwary too played his part by scoring 26 off just 18 deliveries.
Skipper Sourav Ganguly too chipped in with 54 off 43 balls for Riders. He gave a solid start to the home side with Chris Gayle (40 off 21 balls), scoring 94 runs for the first wicket. For Daredevils, Daniel Vettori and Rajat Bhatia shared a wicket each.
In reply, Devils got off to a worst possible start with David Warner became the victim of Ashok Dinda’s brilliant bowling in the first over. He did not give the Aussie any leeway outside the off stump in all the five deliveries he faced before cleaning him up. Warner did not trouble the scorer.
Sehwag and Gambhir both feeling the pinch of scoring quickly, played some rash shot early in their innings but got away with them. But, finally, ball started going from the middle of their bats. Gambhir hit two fours and a six off Mathews’ fifth over and took score to 39.
After the first six overs, Daredevils scored 44 runs, six less of what Knight Riders had made in their innings. Ganguly brought himself on in the ninth over with an intention to provide a breakthrough. But Sehwag welcomed his former national team captain with a six over long-off.
Gambhir got himself out while trying a quick single. Ganguly standing at mid-off did not even blink while hitting the stump. Paul Collingwood, who played well in the last few innings, followed his skipper soon. He holed out to deep mid wicket off Mendis.
Sehwag kept going at the other end. He reached to his fifty in 34 deliveries. In form Dinesh Karthik replaced his English teammate and took the innings forward with quick singles and doubles.
Ajit Agarkar provided the golden breakthrough for Riders, shattering the stumps of Sehwag. The other batsmen followed him one by one.