Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav and left-arm Bangladeshi seam bowler Mustafizur Rahman shared 7 wickets between them to set up a comfortable 4-wicket victory for Delhi over Kolkata in the Match No 41 of the ongoing Indian T20 Cricket League, played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday night.
Kuldeep Yadav returned with magical numbers of 3-0-14-4 whereas Mustafizur Rahman took 4-0-18-3 as Delhi restricted Kolkata to a moderate total of 146/9, with the batting woes persisting for the Shreyas Iyer-led side in the Indian T20 Cricket League 2022 tournament as they slipped to the 8th spot in the points table with 5 defeats on the trot leaving them at 6 points with 3 wins from 9 matches.
It was yet another ordinary display with the bat from Kolkata, who suffered their 5th consecutive defeat in the tournament, this time against Delhi by a margin of 4 wickets and 6 balls to spare at the Wankhede Stadium Mumbai.
Kolkata were restricted to 146/9 and in their reply, Delhi were able to go past the target with 6 balls remaining, courtesy 42 from David Warner, 22 from Lalit Yadav, an unbeaten 33 from just 16 balls from Rovman Powell who seems to be coming to his usual self and lastly, valuable 24 from 17 balls by all-rounder Axar Patel.
It all began with Australian T20 captain Aaron Finch getting off to a strong start, looking to hammer and tongs without even settling down.
The horrible approach from the right-handed batsmen resulted in his early dismissal, with Delhi’s Chetan Sakariya cleaning up Aaron Finch for 3 from 7 balls. There was further misery in store for Venkatesh Iyer with the bat as all-rounder, who was instrumental in Kolkata reaching the final last year, having spent about half an hour at the crease but failing to find any momentum for himself.
The onus of building the innings for Kolkata once again fell on the shoulders of captain Shreyas Iyer, who tried his best with a 37-ball 42 with 4 boundaries. But the right-handed batsman could not help much as wickets kept calling from the other end.
This was when Kuldeep Yadav swung into action and set up a victory for Delhim, as the left-arm bowler accounted for the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Baba Indrajith (6) and noughts for Sunil Narine and Andre Russell.
While Shreyas Iyer was caught behind on a terrible delivery outside off-stump which kept low, Narine was trapped leg before against which he also burned a DRS review. Andre Russell was stumped on the third ball that he faced and Baba Indrajith was caught by Rovman Powell off Kuldeep Yadav for an 8-ball 6.
With the chunk of their batting dismissed, the senior Kolkata batsman Nitish Rana took the attack to the opposition as he put on a study stand for the 7th wicket with Rinku Singh to revive Kolkata from a precarious position of 83/6 in 13.4 overs to 145/7 in 19.2 overs.
Kolkata eventually finished at 146/9 with Nitish Rana making 57 from 34 balls with the help of 4 sixes and 3 fours, providing his side with much-needed runs on the board and impetus going into the second innings. The left-handed batsman was dismissed by left-arm seamer Mustafizur Rahman, who also accounted for Rinku Singh (23) and Tim Southee for a first-ball duck.
Apart from Kuldeep Yadav and Mustafizur Rahman, Delhi also had their left-arm bowler Chetan Sakariya bowling an impressive spell of 3-0-17-1 while Axar Patel returned with 1/28 from his 4 overs.
In a sign of desperation for a win, Kolkata captain Shreyas Iyer used as many as eight different bowlers including himself but could not prevent Delhi from notching up an impressive win.
David Warner led the chase with a 26-ball 42, Mitchell Marsh and Lalit Yadav contributed with 13 and 22 respectively, and even though Prithvi Shaw and Rishabh Pant scored 0 and 2 respectively, Delhi had enough belief in their system to recover from a shaky start — 17/2 in 1.3 overs with Umesh Yadav striking twice to return with an overall 4-0-24-3.
The explosive Caribbean batsman Rovman Powell finished the game eventually for Delhi, something that he could not do against Rajasthan in a controversial end. The right-handed batsman scored 33 not out from just 16 balls, clubbing 3 sixes and a four. He was well supported by Axar Patel, who made a 17-ball 24 with 2 fours and 1 six.
Delhi will look to continue with their winning momentum when they face a formidable Lucknow on Sunday, May 1 whereas Kolkata will hope for a miraculous turnaround with the bat when they take on Rajasthan on Monday, May 2.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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