New Delhi: Kolkata Knight Riders thrashed Delhi Daredevils by six wickets in a lopsided contest to emerge as the table leaders in the Indian Premier League here on Monday.
Chasing a modest target of 154, KKR knocked off the runs with eight balls to spare, courtesy Brendon McCullum’s 56 and his 68-run opening stand with skipper Gautam Gambhir (36).
KKR now lead the points table with 17 points and are all but through to the knock-out stage.
With Sehwag and Kevin Pietersen doing the bulk of the scoring in the earier matches, the Daredevils middle-order was put to test for the first time and it failed miserably.
The likes of Ross Taylor, Yogesh Nagar should take bulk of the blame as they couldn’t stand-up and be counted when their team needed them most. The defeat is certainly a wake-up call for Sehwag’s boys.
The Daredevils lost the match within the Powerplay overs as Gambhir and McCullum started off from where they left against Pune Warriors. McCullum, who has started to find some form, smashed Irfan Pathan for successive boundaries while Gambhir hit left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem for two fours and a six in the fourth over of the innings that fetched 16 runs.
In the next Umesh Yadav over, the duo got another 13 runs as the 50 came off in only five overs.
The Daredevils pacers lacked the discipline as they couldn’t bowl to one channel which made life much easier for Gambhir-McCullum combination.
Finally Varun Aaron, coming back from stress reaction injury, finally dismissed Gambhir. It was a delivery that climbed up on Gambhir as he tried to play the dab-shot to thirdman only to inside edge onto his stumps.
However, there was no stopping McCullum as he continued playing his shots with ease. With Jacques Kallis playing the role of a second fiddle to perfection, McCullum repeatedly bisected the fielders between fine leg and mid-wicket after being gifted with deliveries on his pads. He completed his 50 with a couple off Morne Morkel off 40 balls. Umesh Yadav brought some life back to the lop-sided contest with twin blows as both Kallis and McCullum were dismissed. (PTI)