Manoj Tiwary

Delhi Daredevils’ nightmare this season is unlikely to end as the game against Kolkata Knight Riders ensured that they weren’t going anywhere but to the last position in the points table. The hopes of getting a semifinal spot is slowly but steadily diminishing for the Daredevils as the tournament has almost turned into a nine team game. Thursday’s night left the team to moan over the selectors for disturbing the mechanical equilibrium in the team by changing its original flavor.

After being put into bat, Irfan and Umesh shared the new ball for the Delhi Dare devils. Pathan found some form by getting a few deliveries to comeback into Kallis. He nailed Kallis with one that came in. Kallis shuffled a touch more than he should have. Eventually, the ball that failed to make contact with Kallis’ bat and clipped the leg stump. The otherwise expensive Agarkar picked up the wicket of Goswami. Gambhir started promisingly but mishit one trying to cart one over midwicket. The Kotla ground for the first time cheered the dismissal of Gambhir.

A brilliant half century from Manoj Tiwary (61 off 47 balls) ensured that the Kolkata Knight Riders registered a score of 148 in the board. Tiwary has got some good scores in this tournament so far. But this was special as he shouldered a lot of responsibility staying till the end. His innings that included two fours and three sixes was the only silver lining of the Kolkata Knight Riders batting as all the others in the top order failed to cross the 25 run mark. Goswami’s 22 runs, however, proved handy.

Chasing a modest score of 149, Delhi never really looked in a frame to win this one. Warner was the first to go trying to play a cut of Balaji, only leading to an inside edge onto the stumps.  Sehwag was undone by Unadkat’s bouncer as Kolkata picked up the most important wicket of the evening. From then Kolkata never really looked back.

Iqbal Abdhulla is growing as a player with every game. His control and craft proved more than handy for the Kolkata Knight riders in the middle overs. He finished with figures of 3-25 from his four overs. Venugopal Rao and Nagar’s fight weren’t enough to secure Delhi with a win. Manoj Tiwary was adjudged player of the match. Kolkata rose to the second spot ahead of Chennai because of their next run rate (+0.458).

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