With more than 45000 fans in the huge Eden Gardens stadium and fighting the rain to watch their home team register win, inspired bowling from the South African duo of Van der Merwe and Morne Morkel helped Delhi Daredevils register an unexpected victory in the rain-curtailed match of 12-overs a side to open the season.
IPL 2012 Schedule and Results
DD vs KKR Scorecard
In a repeat of yesterday’s season opener where the Mumbai Indians won the toss and comfortably defeated favorites Chennai Super Kings, the second match saw weaker side Delhi Daredevils steal the show at the home of Kolkata Knight Riders, after winning the toss and electing to field.
Both the matches saw favorite team being bundled out for low score and 8 wickets win by the visiting team. Even the player of the match award was controversial again, as Morne Morkel’s match winning spell was overlooked in favour of 20-ball 42 runs by Irfan Pathan.
DD Bowlers Cleaned up Star-studded KKR
Brendum McCullum, the highest individual scorer in an IPL innings, restarted his KKR career with some good shots in the first and only over of Irfan Pathan. But van der Merwe did not allow the shots to turn into massacre sending him to the dug out in second over. Then Morne started his sensational over where he bowled Kallis and Manoj Tiwary on successful delivery. Yusuf Pathan somehow managed to become part of what could have been 9th hattrick in IPL.
Umesh Yadav arrived and tricked Yusuf Pathan to return without opening his account. After end of 4 overs KKR was struggling at 4/31. Gambhir tried but Morkel sent him packing too in his last over. After 7th over KKR had 6/55 on scoreboard. Laxmi Ratan Shukla who was responsible for ending the cameo of Debabrata Das, scored a quick 26 runs and help his team reach 97/9.
Finch, Sehwag and Irfan Punch Knight Bowlers
Finch and Sehwag started the chase of 98 runs in 12 overs. Brett Lee, de Lange and Abdulla were taken to cleaners in the first four overs. By the time Kallis sent Finch to dug out in 7th over and Rajat Bhatia send Sehwag back, DD had scored 57/2. Irfan Pathan was the surprise pick for number 3 and his quickfire unbeaten 20-ball 42 runs with 3 sixes and 2 boundaries he more than made up for his poor bowling, winning the match on 1st ball of last over.
Sehwag Triumphs, Gambhir Flops as Captain
While facing the impeccable task of saving Delhi Daredevils from a massacre in 12 overs batting of strong KKR batting line up, Sehwag used his bowlers effectively and KKR struggled to reach 97/9.
Gambhir on the other hand failed to apply any pressure. Despite having at least 6 bowlers in the team, he preferred to continue with Marchant de Lange who had a forgettable day from his first over, ultimately conceding 36 runs without success. Rajat Bhatia who gave only 3 runs in his first over accounting for the wicket of dangerous Sehwag, was not given the second over till the last over when DD needed only 2 runs to win with 8 wickets in hand.
Sehwag’s fear with bat doubled with good captaincy in using the bowlers effectively took DD to easy win.
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