Thu, 28 Apr 2011 - IP Delhi vs IP Kolkata, IPL 2011, 33rd Match - Bulletin

Gambhir’s Kolkata win against Sehwag’s Delhi

The game was billed as Delhi versus Gautam Gambhir who wasn’t retained by the team he once captained and showed that how eager he was to defeat his former team at their home ground.

Defending a total of 148, Gambhir marshaled his troops with passion and eagerness and his teammates responded to the captain’s call by displaying an impressive show with the ball. While it was youngsters Iqbal Abdullah and Jaidev Unadkat who shone with the ball, old guards like Jacques Kallis and Brett Lee put up a brilliant show in the field to effect run outs at critical junctures and save important runs.

Delhi never looked in the hunt once opening pair of Virendar Sehwag and David Warner was back in the shed without contributing much and late order blitz by Yogesh Nagar didn’t help either as Kolkata scored one of their impressive wins this season.

What derailed the Delhi chase big time was young left arm spinner Iqbal’s crucial spell in the middle overs getting wickets of Irfan Pathan, James Hopes and Naman Ojha in a quick time. And, in between those dismissals Yusuf Pathan chipped in with the wicket of Travis Birt to knock the stuffing out of Delhi middle order batting.

With 64 runs needed in the last five overs, Rao and young Nagar played some courageous shots to give home team some hope but all that was undone by Kolkata fielders who raised their game in the field.

Kallis led the way sweeping in the deep and dived around to save at least six runs and Lee ending the home team’s chances by running out two batsmen on successive balls including that of Rao.

Iqbal gave away only 25 runs in his four overs and took three wickets while Laxmipathy Balaji despite being expensive claimed crucial wickets of dangerous Warner and Nagar in his first and last over respectively.

The loss keeps Delhi at the bottom of the table and Kolkata on the other hand will be hoping the impressive win tonight gives them a head start for bigger things to come.

Young middle order batsman Manoj Tiwary finally converted a good start to a substantial score guiding his side to competitive 148 after put into bat by Sehwag. Despite brief spells of domination mostly due to Tiwary’s ability to clear the boundary every now and them, Kolkata’s batting effort never took off. Tiwary’s 47-ball stay for his undefeated 61 was a combination of common sense and some lusty hitting at key moments.

Playing with all pace attack, Delhi bowled tight lines and length with left arm pacer Irfan Pathan giving his best performance with the ball. He got his famous in-swinging delivery going and didn’t leak the runs a positive development for beleaguered paceman.

 Irfan final had rewards for his accuracy and good swing bowling when he had Jacques Kallis’s stump clean bowled to give home team first breakthrough of the day.

Ajit Agarkar first delivery saw opener Sheerat Goswami who played some cheeky shots off Morne Morkel edge to wicketkeeper to bring Gambhir and Tiwary together. The duo had a steady partnership marked with quick running between the wickets and occasional boundaries to collect 40 runs for the third wicket.

Hopes ended Gambhir’s scratchy 19-ball 18 and what pegged Kolkata progress back was the two wickets by Umesh Yadav removing Yusuf Pathan and Eoin Morgan off successive deliveries to have them in a spot of bother with score reading at 105 for 5 at the end of fifteenth over.

It didn’t deter Manoj who kept hitting the boundaries and had a useful sixth wicket partnership with Ryan Ten Doeschate to provide innings with a late order charge. The pair put on 35 runs in just four over with Dutch import hitting a breezy 12-ball 19.

Tiwary hit two fours and three sixes in his innings and was the main contributor for taking Kolkata to 148 that in the end proved to be a match winning total.