08 May,2014 01:24 AM IST | | Jaideep Ghosh
Skipper scores 56-ball 69 to guide Kolkata to comfortable win over Delhi Daredevils
Gautam Gambhir in full flight yesterday. Pic/PTI
New Delhi: Halfway through the 15th over of the second innings, Manish Pandey pushed Mohammad Shami to mid-on where Shahbaz Nadeem grabbed the ball and threw at the non-striker's end, with Gautam Gambhir well short. He missed from six feet and the ball went for an overthrow.
That pretty much describes Delhi Daredevils' day - insipid, and uninspired, cementing them well and truly to the bottom of the table in IPL-7 as they went down to Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets at the Feroz Shah Kotla here yesterday.
Though they scored a fighting 160-5, they had no answers on the field as Gambhir returned to his home turf with a fine 69, enough to ensure an elusive win for KKR, who finished at 161-2 with 10 balls to spare.
"Gautam has done well for KKR over several years," KKR's Shakib Al Hasan said. "He had a lean patch but has been practising very hard.
"This is his practice ground and it was not surprising that he did well here. We expect more such innings from him.
Miracles can happen: Shakib
"We played bad cricket against Rajasthan in the last few overs, but overall our performance was good. We would like to kick on from today's win and do our utmost to make the knockout rounds. Miracles can happen," Shakib added.
JP Duminy and Kedar Jadhav stepped on the gas in the last five overs to get the Daredevils to 160. Duminy scored 40 off 28 balls with three sixes. Dinesh Karthik had earlier contributed 36 off 22.
Brief scores
DD 160-5 (JP Duminy 40, D Karthik 36; Shakib Al Hasan 1-13) lost to KKR 161-2 (G Gambhir 69, R Uthappa 47) by 8 wickets
