Gautam Gambhir’s Unbeaten 71 Helps KKR Defeat Delhi by 7 Wickets
Kolkata Knight Riders successfully chased down the target in 16.2 overs.
Skipper Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa's performance with the bat on Friday helped Kolkata Knight Riders beat Delhi Daredevils by seven wickets defeat.
This was Delhi's fourth loss on the trot and has pushed them on the verge of elimination in the Indian Premier League.
Chasing a modest 161, KKR were nine for one in the second over, but Uthappa (59 from 33 balls) and Gambhir put together a 108-run partnership off just 66 balls to lay the foundation.
After Uthappa was run out, Gambhir led the team from the front with an unbeaten 71 from 52 balls to complete the chase with 22 balls to spare. He also completed 6000 runs in T20 cricket.
This was their fourth century partnership while chasing in IPL -- the most by any pair going past David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan's three. KKR haven't lost while chasing at Eden Gardens since IPL 2012.
KKR (14 points) have one foot in the playoff with seven wins from nine matches, while DD's campaign is all but over following a four-match losing streak to languish at the bottom of the table with four points from seven matches.
Uthappa smashed a 24-ball half-century, his fourth from nine games this season.
Three Delhi fielders -- Amit Mishra, Sanju Samson and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant -- rushed to take an Uthappa skier in between short fine leg and square leg but in the end no one went for the catch.
Uthappa was at his furious best against Chris Morris and hammered him for 6 4 6 in an exceptional show of might. In the next over he hit Pat Cummins for a six and a four.
Australian Coulter-Nile, coming back into the side after a one-match break, returned best figures of (3/34) in his four overs picking up the wickets of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant at crucial junctures to halt Delhi's surge.
Samson (60; 38b 4x4 3x6) top-scored with his second fifty of the IPL season while Iyer (47; 34b 4x4 1x6) played a good hand too.
Ankit Bawne -- playing in place of Aditya Tare -- was not out on 12 while Pat Cummins did not face a ball when their innings ended.
Delhi openers Karun Nair (15; 17b, 3x4, 0x6) and Samson started well with the former playing the aggressor's role in the first few overs, welcoming Chris Woakes with two consecutive boundaries in his first two deliveries of the match.
The pair stitched together a 48-run stand before Narine removed Nair who missed a sweep with the ball striking his back leg for a plumb leg before wicket decision.
The hosts suffered a blow when in-form wicketkeeper batsman Robin Uthappa picked up a knock and had to leave the field with Sheldon Jackson -- playing in place of Piyush Chawla -- taking over the gloves in the 10th over.
Iyer and Samson did not hit a boundary for 46 balls before the latter brought up his fifty with a six off Kuldeep Yadav over the square leg boundary.
The duo engineered a 75-run partnership for the second wicket before Samson tried to play across the line and was plumb in front off the bowling of Umesh Yadav (1/38).
Iyer at the other end, took time to settle down before finally looking to accelerate by hitting Umesh for two back-to-back fours. Yusuf Pathan made a hash of the first one, failing to stop the innocuous ball.
Rishabh Pant (6) did not last long, adjudged LBW unluckily when the ball was going down leg off Coulter-Nile's delivery. In the same over, Iyer was sent back just three short of his half century by the Australian.
Corey Anderson (2; 5b; 0x4, 0x6) was dropped twice by Kuldeep in the 17th over before the New Zealand all-rounder was run out.
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