Manoj Tiwary

The Feroz Shah Kotla continued to stay low and slow as the Delhi Daredevils suffered yet another loss, this time to the Kolkata Knight Riders, to remain rooted to the bottom of the table. The Knight Riders made only 148 in their 20 overs and it looked a below par score when Sehwag was smashing boundaries at will. But once spin was introduced in the form of Iqbal Abdulla, the Delhi batsmen struggled and ultimately fell short by 17 runs.

It was the battle of the best buddies as Sehwag and Gambhir walked out to the toss. Delhi decided to give Travis Birt his first taste of the IPL while the Knight Riders decided to leave out Shakib Al Hasan and Brad Haddin while Ryan Ten Doeschate got an opportunity. Sehwag won the toss and put in his Delhi teammate into bat.

Sehwag stuck with his decision to give Pathan the new ball and it paid dividends as he removed Kallis with an inswinger. It was a vintage Pathan delivery and it reminded one and all of Pathan in his hay day. Gambhir scored a couple of boundaries before falling for 18. It was that kind of day where the Knight Riders innings refused to take off. Yusuf Pathan and Eoin Morgan didn’t trouble the scorers much but it was the local boy Manoj Tiwary who made the difference. After initially struggling in his innings, he opened up at the end of the innings and it was 61 of 47 balls that was responsible for the Knight Riders posting a decent score of 148.

Warner fell early as he was castled by Balaji but Sehwag was his usual self as he sent the Kolkata fielders scurrying for leather. But as in the past, his weakness to the short ball was exposed as he skied a lifting delivery of Unadkat. Delhi decided to promote Irfan up the order but he fell cheaply as he found the midwicket fielder of Abdulla. He was soon followed by Birt as the inexperience in the middle order was beginning to show. The required run rate mounted up to 12 in the last six overs and Hopes perished in the quest for quick runs. Some late hitting from Venugopal Rao ultimately proved insufficient as the Daredevils fell short of the target by 17 runs.

Tiwary’s responsible knock fetched him the Man of the Match award as the Knight Riders became the fourth team to occupy the second place in the last five days while Sehwag’s men remained at the foot end of the table.

Tags: Cricket, DD, Delhi Daredevils, Indian Premier League, IPL 2011, IPL 4, KKR, Kolkata Knight Riders