Eighteen off the last over meant Delhi Daredevils faced a much tougher chase than seemed likely. Here are five takeaways from the Kolkata Knight Riders win
Karthik Krishnaswamy07-May-2015One big over
‘One big over’ hasn’t been as much of a catchphrase this season as it was in 2014, but the final over of Kolkata Knight Riders’ innings was a perfect illustration of how influential six balls can be in Twenty20 cricket. Zaheer Khan was the bowler, and he will probably admit to himself that he sent down a dreadful over.He began the over with a low full-toss that Suryakumar Yadav swatted away for a single. Running in to bowl to Johan Botha, Zaheer had four men on the leg-side boundary, and only long-off deep on the off side. He sent down a full ball outside off, and Botha hammered it to the cover boundary.Zaheer adjusted his field next ball, moving cover back and bringing square leg in, but he still had no one in the deep behind square on the off side. He sent down a slower ball on a length, with enough width on it for Botha to steer smartly between backward point and short third man. Botha picked up two more fours off the next two balls – the first a fortuitous top-edge, the second drilled powerfully to beat deep cover. With 18 coming off that over, Knight Riders – who had looked set to finish at around 160, ended up with 171.Scoreboard pressure mounts on Daredevils
Zaheer’s over had repercussions all the way through Delhi Daredevils’ innings. If they had been chasing 160, the start Shreyas Iyer and Manoj Tiwary gave them would have set their middle order a fairly good launchpad. Instead, at the 10-over mark, when they had just lost their first wicket, their required rate was close to 11 an over. Had they been chasing 160, it would have been been closer to nine-and-a-half.The Knight Riders spinners added to this pressure with their constriction, and Daredevils’ batsmen perished one by one playing desperate heaves. Kedar Jadhav, Yuvraj Singh and JP Duminy all holed out to fielders on the rope. Piyush Chawla ended up with a four-wicket haul.There was still a slim chance for Daredevils when Angelo Mathews and Saurabh Tiwary brought it down to 42 off 18 balls. If they had been chasing 160, it would have been 30 off 18.Umesh, Russell bend their backs
The Eden Gardens surface suited the spinners like it usually does, but not to the extent that it did against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Anything short sat up to be pummeled, and there was less turn, so hitting against the break wasn’t quite as hard. So though Knight Riders picked four specialist spinners, they will be pleased with the role their two seamers performed.There was bounce available, and this had been evident even during Knight Riders’ innings, particularly when Angelo Mathews tested a leaden-footed Yusuf Pathan early in his innings. But Daredevils’ seamers didn’t exploit it as well as Umesh Yadav and Andre Russell did with the new ball.Manoj Tiwary looked distinctly uncomfortable against Umesh, who banged it in just short of a length and forced him to get up off his toes on a couple of occasions and hit him on the thigh pad once. Russell combined bounce with inward movement off the deck, cramped the batsmen for room, and slipped in the odd bouncer. Together, they finished with combined figures of 5-0-25-0 in their respective first spells.Daredevils fail to seize the moment
When Yusuf Pathan was new to the crease, his feet were barely moving, and Angelo Mathews tested him three straight dot-balls followed by a loud appeal for a catch at square leg when the ball jagged in and ballooned off the batsman’s thigh pad. Mathews was looking sharp, and had figures of 2-0-13-0, but didn’t come back to bowl after that.Daredevils’ batting order did them no favours either. With all respect to their accomplishments at various levels, Shreyas Iyer and Manoj Tiwary – and in previous matches Mayank Agarwal – aren’t the most dangerous batsmen in the side. They didn’t do too badly, but a partnership of 63 in 59 balls isn’t really going to help chase down 172 too often. By the time Daredevils’ power-packed middle order came in to bat, they were left with too much to do.Even the middle order, you could argue, wasn’t ordered particularly well. Albie Morkel has a career IPL strike rate in the 140s, and Saurabh Tiwary’s – from a sample size of over 50 innings – is less than 120. Both are left-handed. With five wickets down and 61 to get from 27 balls, it was strange to see Tiwary walk in ahead of Morkel.Tiwary did well enough, clubbing three fours and a six in an unbeaten 15-ball 24, but it’s hard to say Daredevils were giving themselves the best chance of pulling off this chase by sending him in ahead of someone who has played plenty of important knocks in similar situations before.Fielding standards shown up again
Even in an IPL season full of fielding bloopers, this match stood out. Delhi Daredevils let off Robin Uthappa twice. Manoj Tiwary put him down at long-on, with one eye on the rope and one on the ball when he miscued JP Duminy towards him, while Yuvraj Singh failed to grab an overhead dolly at short midwicket, reacting dozily when the ball was flicked uppishly at him.When Knight Riders took the field, Gautam Gambhir dropped an equally simple catch when Shreyas Iyer scooped the ball towards point, with no power whatsoever, while miscuing a cut off Brad Hogg. And in the final over of the match, Manish Pandey ensured Knight Riders drew the dropped catches mini-match 2-2, when he moved to his right from long-on and failed to hold on to a pull from Saurabh Tiwary.
