Kolkata 166-5 (20 ov)
Delhi 167-6 (19.3 ov)
Toss: Kolkata, chose to bat
Kolkata: Uthappa 55, Pandey 48; Coulter-Nile 2-27
Delhi: Karthik 56, Duminy 52 n.o; Morkel 2-41, Narine 1-18
DUBAI // JP Duminy made sure the continuing absence of for little after he guided Delhi Daredevils to a four-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders.
DPaul Radley
DUBAI // This day was always going to be all about a South African-born batsman who plays for Delhi Daredevils. Only thing was, it was the wrong headline act.
Even when he is not present, Kevin Pietersen cannot help making news.
A finger injury has so far kept the former England batsman from taking up the on-field side of his role as captain of the Delhi Daredevils this season.
The injury is obviously not serious enough to stop him tweeting, though.
Earlier yesterday, Pietersen had magnanimously written on the social media site: “Everyone deserves a second chance.”
Presumably that referred to his former foe, Peter Moores, being restored to the England coaching role he lost after he had a falling out with Pietersen.
While the debate over the restoration of both or either of Pietersen and Moores to their former offices in England traversed the globe, there was a cricket match going on at a packed ground in Dubai.
In Pietersen’s absence, JP Duminy played a fine hand to help his side to a four wicket-win over Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi’s first victory in this year’s IPL.
As he brought about victory in a flurry of sixes – the most spectacular ones coming off his South Africa teammate Morne Morkel – Duminy also assumed the orange cap as the competition’s leading run scorer.
“I wasn’t calm on the inside, that is for sure,” Duminy said of his role in chasing down the victory total with three balls to spare.
“I think it was just a case of us being smart about how we went about it, not trying to do it all by myself and communicating with my partner. Luckily for us, it worked out.”
Dinesh Karthik, who was Delhi’s stand-in captain, extolled Duminy’s virtues afterwards.
Well he might have done as Delhi looked to be cruising to victory until Karthik, a big-money signing at this year’s IPL auction, sacrificed his wicket to Sunil Narine when well set.
“He is a world-class player,” Karthik said of Duminy. “He is able to hit the big shots when it matters and at the same time knock the ball around. He is very confident.”
Delhi’s task would have been far easier had they not book-ended their effort with the ball in such an odd way.
The first and final deliveries sent down by Delhi bowlers together cost 15 runs, although a wicket was also picked up along the way.
Mohammed Shami’s first ball of the match was a leg-side wide. The next ball claimed the prized scalp of Jacques Kallis, caught at slip.
The following ball went for four wides down the leg-side, meaning the scoreboard read a quirky six for one off 0.1 overs.
Then, at the end of the final over, Nathan Coulter-Nile bowled a full-toss above waist height to Suryal Yadav on the last scheduled delivery, which the batsman sent to the boundary.
When that no-ball was re-bowled, Yadav improvised a brilliant reverse-sweep over third-man’s head on the edge of the circle for four. It was an aggregate concession of nine.
Thanks to Duminy’s fireworks that wastage did not cost them.
Kolkata were reliant on two Indian batsmen, rather than their overseas stars, for reaching a competitive total of 166.
Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa, who have been state teammates for Karnataka for the past seven years, shared 64 for the third wicket.
“We have lots of good batsmen and not everyone can click on the same day,” Pandey said.
“I think we did pretty well, me and Robin had a good partnership and I think we had a good total on the board.”
pradley@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter at @SprtNationalUAE
