Delhi Daredevils 100 -2 (Irfan Pathan 42*, Aaron Finch 30, Rajat Bhatia 1-7) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 97-9 (Laxmi Shukla 26, Debabarata Das 18, Morne Morkel 3-18, Umesh Yadav 2-9) by 8 wickets.
Irfan Pathan lambasted the Kolkata Knight Rider bowlers severely by smashing 42 runs off 20 balls and led Delhi Daredevils a comfortable victory in IPL2012.
Kolkata Knight Riders managed 97 runs in the allotted 12 overs and Delhi Daredevils romped through by dispatching 100 runs with 5 balls to spare.
Irfan Pathan (Delhi Daredevils) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his attacking knock of unbeaten 42 runs.
The second match of the Indian Premier League 2012 was played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, which is the home of Kolkata Knight Riders, on April 5, 2012. The jam packed house waited for nearly two and a half hours because of the rain and the match was restricted to 12 overs a side.
Earlier, Delhi Daredevils Captain Virender Sehwag, won the toss and put the rival team into bat on a rain affected park. Brendon McCullum and Jacques Kallis opened the innings for Kolkata Knight Riders and punished Irfan Pathan for nine runs in his first over with two boundaries. The score was taken to 14 runs when McCullum was declared leg before wicket off Roelof van der Merwe for 9.
Kallis was clean bowled by Morne Morkal for just four runs on the fourth ball of the third over and Manoj Tiwari faced the same fate on the very next ball without opening his account. The batsmen found it hard to score the runs consistently as Yusuf Pathan became the next victim for a duck and the home side was reeling at 31 for the loss of four wickets in four overs.
The local boys Laxmi Shukla and Debabarata Das stopped the bowling invasion and sparkled with the blades for a short time. Shukla banged 26 runs off 17 balls with two sixes and a four as Das scored 18 from 9 balls with a couple of sixes. However, Kolkata Knight Riders could score 97 runs with one wicket in hand in the allocated 12 overs.
Morne Morkel was the highest wicket taker with three as Roelof van der Merwe and Umesh Yadav held two wickets each.
Delhi Daredevils started the innings with Aaron Finch and Virender Sehwag, the first being more aggressive of the two. Finch dispatched a couple of fours each in the second and third overs as Sehwag hit Iqbal Abdullah for a six in the following over. The pace of scoring was continued and the duo smashed 49 runs in 6.2 overs when Finch was bowled by Kallis for 30 off 27 with 5 fours.
Sehwag departed after the addition of 8 runs in the total for 20 scored off 13 with one six and even four when he was caught by Iqbal Abdulla on the bowling of Rajat Bhatia. Irfan Pathan took over from there and never looked back with a nominal support from Glenn Maxwell at the other end.
Irfan punished Kallis for a six on the fifth ball of the ninth over and gathered 16 runs in the next over with two giant sixes. He sent the ball rolling out of the square leg boundary and earned the victory for his side. The 27-year-old remained unbeaten on 42 off just 20 balls assisted with three sixes and two fours.
Delhi Daredevils achieved the target by plundering 100 runs with 8 wickets in hand in 11.1 overs and earned two valuable points.
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