What prompted Gautam Gambhir and Kolkata Knight Riders to bat second,
under the lights, in South Africa, is unclear. And the plan clearly did
not come off; it went horribly wrong on a track that had unreliable
bounce, which the Delhi Daredevils' four-man pace attack used wisely
after 60 overs were played out on the pitch. The Knight Riders were not
only outplayed by 52 runs, five of their batsmen got struck, including
the team's batting mainstay Jacques Kallis. Their top-order had an
outing they'd do well to forget.
Out of 168 day-night limited-overs internationals in the country, only
27 teams have won the game after deciding to bat second. At the
SuperSport Park, only one team has won in ODI cricket while none have
done so in Twenty20 internationals. And against an attack that includes
the towering Morne Morkel, the Knight Riders were swimming against the
tide willfully. The uneven bounce confused them further and by the time
the first ten balls of their innings were done, Daredevils had done
enough damage.
It started with the captain Gautam Gambhir, when Irfan Pathan removed
him for a duck off the third ball, having the left-hander chip one to
mid-on. Off his sixth ball, he brought one back into the other opener,
Manvinder Bisla, who was trapped leg-before. Irfan had one of those
better evenings, when he looked like bringing the ball back whenever he
pleased. It got worse for the Knight Riders when Brendon McCullum cut
one to Chand at point off Morne Morkel's first ball, the seventh of the
innings, for a duck.
Jacques Kallis was the next man to walk off when Morkel rapped him on
the fingers of his right hand while trying to fend off an awkward
delivery. He had to retire hurt and did not come back to bat, but X-rays
revealed that there was no fracture. The very next ball struck the next
batsman, Irfan, on his arm, as he attempted to leave a rising delivery.
At the end of the fifth over, he was put out of misery when Daredevil's
first-change bowler Umesh Yadav had him deflect one back at the stumps.
By this time the ball started keeping low too. Manoj Tiwary and Rajat
Bhatia added 47 for the fifth wicket but it was only a face-saving
exercise.
Irfan, Morkel and Yadav took two wickets each and Ajit Agarkar got one;
except for the left-arm swing bowler, the other three struck the batsmen
and kept them pinned on the backfoot.
Daredevils too were in trouble when they batted, but the recovery was
prompt. The 63-run fourth-wicket stand between Unmukt Chand and Ross
Taylor put them in a strong position, especially after a 30-run 17th
over from L Balaji.
Chand played some attractive shots to start off his innings and survived
a chance on 14 at midwicket, where Tiwary dropped a skier. He cracked
two sixes and two more boundaries to finish on a 27-ball 40. It ended
when he completely missed an off-break from Sunil Narine. The versatile
spinner took three wickets while Brett Lee and Kallis bowled well too.
But it would be the costly overs from Balaji that they could pinpoint
for conceding more than the average score at the venue.
Following Daredevils' resounding win, Pietersen will be off to London to
meet with England team director Andy Flower on Sunday. He is likely to
be back in time for Daredevils' second game, on Friday in Durban,
against
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