Another bad day for Delhi Daredevils

Today, Delhi Daredevils lost one more match and the worst thing was it was an home match. They played against Kolkata Knight Riders ( the most hated team by me at the moment) at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi. The toss was also favoring to Delhi Daredevils. But they made a wrong decision: they took fielding first. Still Delhi Daredevils are at the bottom of the ranking table.

Kolkata Knight Riders opened their batting innings with their openers Jacques Kallis and Shreevats Goswami. There was no aggressive start given by them, it was just a stable opening with ball to ball run rate. The wickets were falling in quick intervals. Gautam Gambhir also could not make it big today. It was Manoj Tiwary's day as he helped the team to put up a decent total on board. In the end there was some contribution given by Ryan ten Doeschate. In 20 overs, KKR scored a total of 148 runs and lost 7 wickets (KKR - 148/7, 20 over). Manoj Tiwary was unbeaten till the end scoring 61 runs on board. Irfan Pathan was the most economical bowler with a economy rate of just 4 runs per over and took 1 wicket.

This target did not look challenging for the Delhi Daredevils as it was chase-able total and the advantage was that it was their home ground. Opener David Warner did not play well today and the skipper Virender Sehwag took the charge and scored some beautiful knocks. After the departure of Sehwag, Delhi middle order got collapsed and lost wicket very quickly. At one point of time they had lost 6 wickets and scored only 85 runs. The lower order batsmen could not outplay the bowling attack of KKR and they tried very hard to chase the total. In the end, they failed to chase the target and ended up scoring a total of 131 runs loosing 9 wickets in 20 overs (DD - 131/9, 20 over). Iqbal Abdulla took 3 wickets.

Kolkata Knight Riders won the match by 17 runs. Man of the match was Manoj Tiwary.

IPL 2011: KKR vs DC

On 11th of April, Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers faced each other at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. The toss was won by KKR and they elected to bat first.

Jacques Kallis and Manvinder Bisla opened the batting innings. The start was pretty good and they scored runs very smoothly. Manvinder Bisla got out when their team total was 51. Jacques Kallis managed to put up his second half-century of the tournament. Later on, skipper Gautam Gambhir, Manoj Tiwary and Yusuf Pathan played some good knocks and guided the team to put up a very good total. They managed to scored a total of 163 runs with the loss of 4 wickets in 20 overs (KKR - 163/4, 20 over). This score was the highest total scored by any team in this IPL season 4.

Now the real pressure was on Deccan Chargers as they had to score 164 runs to win the match. This was pretty tough as they have to give a brilliant opening with a big partnership. But they failed to make it happen, they lost 2 quick wickets in a span of 3.2 over. They were in real trouble at this point of time. Bharat Chipli, Daniel Christian and Amit Mishra played some brilliant strokes that helped the Deccan Chargers to get closer. But DC failed to chase the target and ended up scoring a total of 146 runs in 20 overs for the loss of 8 wickets (DC - 146/8, 20 over). Iqbal Abdulla took 3 wickets.

Kolkata Knight Riders won match by 9 runs. Man of the match was Jacques Kallis for his brilliant performance with bat and in field. He scored a half-century and took 4 catches.

IPL 4 begins

On 8th of April, IPL season 4 began. The first match was played between Chenni Super Kings and Kolkota Knight Riders at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. The toss went into the favor of the hosts and they elected to bat first.

Aniruda Srikkanth and Murali Vijay opened the batting innings for the Chennai Super Kings. Murali Vijay did not perform as he departed after scoring only 4 runs. Suresh Raina came in to bat and put up a partnership of 75 runs which helped CSK to add up some good runs on board. After the departure of Raina, things slowed down and the run rate fell. Finally Chennai Super Kings managed to put up a total score of 153 runs on board for the loss of 4 wickets (CSK - 153/4, 20 over). Aniruda Srikkanth was the top scorer of the team who scored a magnificent 64 runs in 55 deliveries which included 6 fours and 2 sixes. Jacques Kallis managed to pick up 2 wickets for KKR.

Kolkota Knight Riders after restricting CSK to 153, opened its batting innings with the openers Manvinder Bisla and Jacques Kallis. The start was just rocking and they were just cruising in with runs. In the 9th over, CSK were back with the removal of Manvinder Bisla's wicket. This was the first blow for KKR. After the fall of the dangerous Yusuf Pathan and Jacques Kallis, KKR were in real trouble as the required kept on increasing rapidly. Even the skipper Gautam Gambhir could not break the jinx set by CSK. Manoj Tiwary in the 19th over hit 2 sixes which drastically reduced the asking rate. At one point of time, KKR required 9 runs from just 8 balls. But Manoj Tiwary did not maintain his calm and he got out by getting stumped by MS Dhoni. Soon Laxmi Shukla followed him. Finally KKR needed 4 runs in just 1 ball, Tim Southee bowled an magnificent yorker which restricted the batsman to settle with only 1 run. KKR ended up its batting innings scoring 151 runs for the loss of 7 wickets (KKR - 151/7, 20over). Skipper MS Dhoni made 3 stump outs and one run-out.