Scoreboard pressure won the day in the Indian Premier League clash between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Delhi Daredevils on Monday.
Having won the toss the Daredevils unsurprisingly opted to bowl first as most captains have done in this campaign.
But the Daredevils didn’t bank on a brutal cameo from Andre Russell that lifted the home side from 117 for 4 in the 14th over to 178 for 5 at the fall of the West Indian’s wicket in the 18th.
Some late slogging saw the Knight Riders reach 200 for 9 at the end of their twenty with Nitish Rana’s 59 holding the middle order together.
Up front, Robin Uthappa (35) and Chris Lynn (31) gave the Knight Riders a decent start after Sunil Narine (1) misfired.
Rahul Tewatia would benefit from bowling during the slog picking up 3 for 18 from his three while seamers Trent Boult (2/29), Chris Morris (2/41) did a job for the visitors up front.
Despite losing a few early wickets the Daredevils remained in the game through Rishabh Pant (43) and Glenn Maxwell (47) but their departures in the 9th and 11th overs of the chase left the Daredevils 113 for six and chasing the game.
Spinners Kuldeep Yadav (3/32) and Sunil Narine (3/18) minced the lower order of the Daredevils and secured a big win for the home side.
The Daredevils were bowled out for 129 two balls into the 15th over of the chase giving the Kolkata Knight Riders a 71 run win and lifting them to second on the log.
The Delhi franchise are trailed only by the winless Mumbai Indians and are seventh after four matches.
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