23rd May, 2012, Chennai: On Tuesday, Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Delhi Daredevils by 18 runs to reach their maiden final of the Indian Premier League.
Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bat first. Kolkata scored 162 in 20 overs with the loss of 4 wickets. Gautam Gambhir, the skipper of Knight Riders, made 32 runs in 16 balls before he got run out. Jacques Kallis made 30 and Brendon McCullum scored 31 runs. Yusuf Pathan played an important innings hitting three 4s and two 6s in his 40 runs not out innings in 20 balls.
Daredevils suffered a tough blow as both their openers David Warner (for 7 runs) and Virender Sehwag (for 10 runs) in the second and third over respectively. This left Delhi with 24 for 2 on the board. In spite of a 59 runs third wicket partnership between Jayawardene (40 runs) and Ojha (29 runs), Daredevils fell short near the end of the game. For Kolkata, West Indian spinner Narine got 2 wickets in 4 overs giving away 24 runs and Jacques Kallis also had the similar bowling figure.
On Sunday, Kolkata will go head to head with the winner of Qualifier 2. The second qualifier will be played between the winner of the eliminator which is to be played between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians and the loser of Qualifier 1 that is Delhi Daredevils.
After the game, Delhi skipper Sehwag told, “We did not bat well, 160 was chase-able. The required batting effort was just not there. We lost two early wickets and failed to make it in the last few overs.” Gautam Gambhir told that they always felt that it was a 140 – 145 wicket, but when they got 160, they thought it was an above par score.
