Piyush Chawla took four wickets as defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders beat Delhi Daredevils by 13 runs in their return leg clash of the IPL at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday.
Chasing a stiff 172-run target, Delhi managed 158/6 in their 20 overs as Chawla spun a web to outshine his tweaker teammates Sunil Narine and Brad Hogg.
Delhi got off to a fine start with Manoj Tiwary and Shreyas Iyer putting up a 63-run opening stand before Chawla broke the stand by dismissing Tiwary (25).
Hogg then clean bowled Iyer (40) before Chawla cleaned up Kedar Jadhav (25), Yuvraj Singh (0) and Jean-Paul Duminy (10) in two successive overs.
Chawla finished with impressive figures of 4/32 but Gambhir might be pondering if playing four spinners was a bit too much.
With this victory, Kolkata move up to the third spot with 13 points, ahead of Royal Challengers Bangalore.
On the other hand, Daredevils languish at the seventh place, with eight points and almost out of contention for a place in the playoffs.
Kedar Jadhav meant business but fell immediately after the second strategic break.
Yuvraj's dismal IPL 8 continued, falling for a third-ball duck and it was all but over for the Daredevils.
Duminy, Angelo Mathews and Saurabh Tiwary threw their bats around, but it only helped reduce the margin of defeat.
Pathan held Kolkata's innings together and struck three fours and three sixes.
Earlier, defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders rode on Yusuf Pathan's 42 from 24 balls to post a competitive 171/7.
Pathan once again held KKR's innings together and struck three fours and three sixes even as DD picked wickets at regular intervals.
Imran Tahir (2/46) dismissed Pathan in the penultimate over of the innings but Johan Botha blasted 17 from five balls in the last over to fire up the total after KKR elected to bat for the first time this season.
Playing with an extra bowler after Sunil Narine got a clearance from the Board, a relieved KKR rejigged their batting order and sent Piyush Chawla at No. 4.
The KKR leg spinner looked unconvincing but his cameo of 22 from 19 balls (1x4, 1x6) kept the run-rate ticking, even as Mishra bowled a tight spell conceding two runs with one wicket from his first two overs.
Chawla almost fell on the wickets after losing his balance trying to get away an Angelo Mathews bouncer as he looked out of sorts but nevertheless KKR kept the run-rate ticking even as Mishra (1/20) bowled a tidy spell.
Earlier, DD were severely let down by their fielding and Uthappa benefited the most after being dropped twice during his 31-ball 32 run innings. On both the occasions, the ball slipped in between the fielders' hands.
Manoj let one slip over the boundary when Uthappa was on 15, while Yuvraj who was employed at short midwicket dropped a sitter when the KKR opener was on 23.
Gambhir (12 from 10 balls) had given KKR a typical flying start putting on 38 runs with Uthappa from 4.3 overs before Zaheer Khan gave DD the first breakthrough inducing an outside edge from the KKR skipper.
Aided by the two reprieves, Uthappa and Pandey (22) capitalised on the start as KKR coasted to 50/1 from six overs before Mishra put brakes on the run-rate conceding one run from his first over.
Uthappa looked tentative against Mishra who finally brought an end to his innings after dismissing him lbw with a ball that went straight after pitching in the middle stump line.
After being cleared again with a final warning by the BCCI hours before the match, Narine was back to lead the pack as KKR opted for a four-spin attack with Brad Hogg, Piyush Chawla and Johan Botha.
Delhi made two changes with local lad Manoj Tiwary and Albie Morkel replacing Mayank Agarwal and Nathan Coulter-Nile respectively.
- Manohar
