Looks like Delhi Daredevils’ dream of playing IPL play-offs is as good as over. They crashed into their seventh defeat JP Duminy and his men lost against the Kolkata Knight Riders. From their remaining three encounters, if they manage to win all of them, still it looks tough to make it to the next level.
However, KKR strengthen their chances of making it to the IPL play-offs after beating Daredevils and will be looking to win their rest of their matches. In their match against Delhi, KKR made most of their home conditions. Their top four batsmen got starts, but none of them could make it big.
It was only Yusuf Pathan, who batted the like a champion. A late charge from Johan Botha (17 off five deliveries) made all the difference. He struck four boundaries off Zaheer Khan to take the KKR score beyond Delhi’s reach.
In reply, the Daredevils had a steady start to their innings, but they lost the plot after losing the first wicket in Manoj Tiwary. Like what they did in the previous matches, Delhi experimented with their batting line-up.
Their star batsman, Yuvraj Singh, who was demoted again, was out on a duck. Duminy tried to repair the Delhi innings after Shreyas Iyer’s decent knock of 40. Both Angelo Mathews and Saurabh Tiwary too got into twenties, but they never got close to the target.
For KKR, Piyush Chawla took four wickets to his credit. In fact, he performed better than three other spinners in the team – Sunil Narine, Brad Hogg and Botha. It will be interesting if this bowling combination cam actually work in days to come for KKR.
