This was one of those rare Twenty20 games where brilliant fielding proved the decisive factor, as Delhi Daredevils beat the Kolkata Knight Riders by seven wickets at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh stadium here yesterday.
Yet another full house, in excess of 45,000, were momentarily hushed when Gautam Gambhir won the toss. When the first ball of the match, bowled by Irfan Pathan, was pulled authoritatively to the midwicket fence for four, the crowd’s fears seemed to have been confirmed. Off the second ball, which struck Manvinder Bisla on the pad, Gambhir went for a suicidal run, but was comfortably outpaced by Irfan, who scooped the ball up in his follow-through and threw the stumps down at the striker’s end.
If Pathan’s presence of mind and perfect execution of the run out ensured that Gambhir was dismissed without facing a ball, it also lifted his team visibly. Bisla attempted an ambitious inside-out shot off an express delivery from Umesh Yadav that moved away a touch and flattened the off stump.
Yusuf Pathan, short of runs in the season, connected cleanly off consecutive Ashish Nehra deliveries, glancing and hitting back down the ground for fours. Morne Morkel then got the treatment, as a length ball disappeared into the stands at long-on. Attempting an encore, Yusuf speared a ball high and wide, and the crowd held its breath as Irfan tracked down the swirler, keeping his eyes on the ball as it went over his shoulder. Running full tilt, he caught Yusuf, his half-brother, to reduce Kolkata to 37 for 3.
Eoin Morgan swung the left-arm spin of Shahbaz Nadeem to the deep, and on most days would have been safe, but Yadav, sprinting around, held on to an excellent tumbling catch. If any confirmation was needed that Delhi were not in a frame of mind to miss even half-chances, it came from Ben Roehrer, who timed his leap perfectly at point to take a stunning one-handed catch off Jacques Kallis to leave the Kolkata innings in tatters at 50 for 5.
Rajat Bhatia and Sumit Narwal, both of whom play their cricket in Delhi, staged a recovery of sprts. Narwal (23) took his chances and Bhatia (26 not out) was as composed as ever as Kolkata pushed the score to 136.
Virender Sehwag was let-off early, when Gambhir dropped a sitter at short cover, but it did not prove costly as he edged Kallis to Yusuf at slip on 17. Mahela Jayawardene poked at L Balaji and was also taken at slip. Unmukt Chand struggled to lay bat to ball against Sunil Narine, but accumulated runs while David Warner took control of the chase. With 110 needed from 95 balls, all Delhi needed was for one of their batsmen bat long. Warner did so, racking up an impressive unbeaten 62 (41b, 5x4, 3x6) to see his team home.
FROM: WISDEN INDIA
