Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Rider’s captain Gautam Gambhir made a touching gesture by donating his Man of the Match prize money to the victims of the Sukma attack. The Knight Riders captain displayed great skills with the bat to remain unbeaten on 71 runs off 52 balls to take his team home with 22 balls to spare. It was yet another clinical performance from the two times champions. The KKR bowlers did well to restrict the Daredevil’s side to 160 runs and then followed it up with a brilliant match winning partnership between Gambhir and Uthappa.
Uthappa continued his fabulous form from Pune game as his 33-ball 59 took Kolkata Knight Riders to a facile seven-wicket victory over the Delhi Daredevils at the Eden Gardens. Uthappa did get a reprieve (just like he had in the match in Pune) and blitzed away in tandem with his skipper. The two put on a 108 in just 66 balls and despite Uthappa’s wicket, that partnership proved enough for KKR to cruise home by seven wickets.
A visibly relaxed Knight Riders captain later said after the match, “We still have a long way to go. So far, most of the boxes have been ticked. It’s a kind of tournament where you can lose momentum. It was a very professional performance today. The way the bowlers restricted Delhi was an unbelievable effort. It starts coming a bit better in the evening. We knew that they had a good bowling attack. We backed our batters. You’ve got to have faith in your bowlers. We’ve never picked players with hope. If you show that trust, they will deliver. The way Uthappa is hitting the ball is not something I’ve seen from many. We have to put some more effort in our fielding. Hopefully if we can improve that, we can save 10-15 runs.”
Delhi Daredevils captain Zaheer Khan will rue the lost opportunities as it was yet another lackadaisical performance from his players. According to Zaheer, “We had the platform I think. I felt we could defend 160. Maybe 15 runs short after setting that platform. The dropped catches didn’t help. The timing of the dropped catches is very crucial. Uthappa is their aggressor and things could have been different. We just have to regroup quickly. We need that spark and winning momentum. We need someone to have that kind of day to change things for us. It’s just about staying tight as a group. It’s a long tournament. I’ll be able to tell youtomorrow about my hamstring.”