Kolkata First Finalist In IPL 2012

Kolkata Knight Riders 162 for 4 (Yusuf 40*) beat Delhi Daredevils 144 for 8 (Jayawardene 40, Kallis 2-24, Narine 2-24) by 18 runs

After four seasons of at times embarrassing underachievement, Kolkata Knight Riders will play for the IPL trophy on Sunday. For almost two-thirds of the qualifier against Delhi Daredevils, they nearly blew it, though the odds were stacked in their favour right from the start. On a pitch where the first ball of spin turned sharply, Knight Riders had three spinners waiting; Delhi Daredevils stuck to playing three specialist fast bowlers.

Daredevils' strategy did not seem to have backfired when Knight Riders lumbered to 106 for 4 in 16 overs. In the chase, despite losing Virender Sehwag and David Warner in the first 13 balls, Daredevils were right in the hunt at 83 for 2 after 10 overs. But like they had suddenly bolted away in the last four overs of their innings, Knight Riders choked Daredevils in the latter half of the chase. Daredevils did not help their cause, sending Pawan Negi ahead of Ross Taylor, who finally came in at No. 7 when the asking-rate was more than 14 an over.

The late boost that carried Knight Riders to a challenging total on the difficult pitch came from the unlikeliest quarters. Yusuf Pathan, who had done almost nothing the entire season, and Laxmi Shukla, playing in place of an unfit Manoj Tiwary, carted the quicks for 56 off the final four overs, and 36 off the final two, as Knight Riders surged to 162.

Gautam Gambhir had once again given Knight Riders a strong start, taking the fast bowlers for several boundaries. He had sped to 32 off 16 deliveries before he failed to make his ground to a direct hit from mid-off after having backed up too far. Not for the first time after Gambhir's departure, Knight Riders lost their way. Only 58 runs came off the next ten overs as Negi, the left-arm spinner, and Irfan Pathan strangled the batsmen.

Just when it seemed Knight Riders had wasted Gambhir's efforts upfront, Yusuf and Shukla launched into the quicks, who did not let up on the pace. Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav kept bowling in the late 140s with Morne Morkel not far behind. But the faster they bowled, the ball only came on better on the slow pitch.

Yusuf began the assault in the 17th over, carting a Morkel length ball for a straight six. Shukla took the lead in the 19th, making room to loft Morkel over extra cover for four and pulling him over deep square leg for six. It was to get worse for Daredevils in the last over. David Warner dropped Yusuf as he ran across from long-on and ended up parrying it for six. Yusuf cover-drove and flicked the last two deliveries for fours.

The core of the attack that had taken Daredevils to No. 1 position after the league stage had been taken apart. Yadav and Morkel went for 37 each, Aaron for 48, including 21 in that final over.

The last thing Daredevils needed at that stage was a rough decision, and pat it came in the second over of the chase. Warner, who had just smashed Shakib Al Hasan for six over long-on, missed the next ball as he pushed forward, but was given out caught by umpire Billy Doctrove as the ball popped up to the wicketkeeper off the pad. Sehwag departed next ball, edging an attempted cut off the impressive L Balaji to the keeper.

Just when it seemed Daredevils had done themselves in even before Sunil Narine came on, Naman Ojha and Mahela Jayawardene responded with the highest stand of the match. The duo took Shakib, who had a forgettable game, for 15 runs in the fourth over. Bowling too quick to get any bite from the surface, Shakib was lofted inside-out and down the ground for two fours and a six.

Though the general lack of pace in the Knight Riders attack started to make its presence felt, Ojha and Jayawardene kept the runs coming. The duo was in control when Ojha cut a long hop from Bhatia straight to Gambhir at backward point. A few tight overs and Venugopal Rao's struggle further increased the pressure on Jayawardene. The threat of Narine, who gave just seven runs in his first two overs, forced him to attack the other bowlers, eventually leading to him being stumped off Abdulla in the 15th over.

With 55 needed off 32, Sehwag sent in Negi ahead of Taylor, who hit his third ball from Narine for six over wide long-on. But it was too late by then. Daredevils have another chance to get it right in the second qualifier on Friday.

Deccan Chargers v Delhi Daredevils, IPL 2012, Hyderabad,Cricinfo

Delhi Daredevils 193 for 1 (Warner 109*, Ojha 64*) beat Deccan Chargers 187 for 4 (Dhawan 84, White 65) by nine wickets 

Even a total as formidable as 187 wasn't enough for Deccan Chargers' inexperienced bowling attack to pull off a win against Delhi Daredevils. David Warner filled the vacuum left by Kevin Pietersen with a blistering century - his second in the IPL - in only his second game of the season. With help from Naman Ojha, Daredevils butchered their way back to No.1, overhauling the target with 20 balls to spare.

Chargers fielded a bowling unit without foreign players, the most experienced of the lot being Amit Mishra. It was a recipe for a mauling. There was no respite even at the other end, as the promising Ojha capitalised on his promotion, hitting five sixes in his 64. Warner and Ojha overshadowed a similar performance from another Indo-Australian left-right duo earlier in the evening - Shikhar Dhawan and Cameron White.

Daredevils' response was so swift and intimidating that Virender Sehwag's early departure was a distant memory. Sehwag tried to make a mockery of the decision to open the bowling with Dhawan by lofting the first ball to long-off. A similar attempt off the second ball resulted in a top edge that swirled to point, where White held a well-judged catch running backwards.

It was the only memorable bit of fielding from Chargers. The familiar misfields were characteristic of another flat performance, completely out of sync with the batting. Warner hit two forceful boundaries to take 16 off the opening over and set the tone for the rest of the chase.

Warner exposed the lack of depth and experience in the bowling, one that should serve as a lesson for the franchise before the next trading window. TP Sudhindra, back after warming the bench for over a month, gave away 13 in his first over. Ashish Reddy, one of the impressive newcomers this season for Chargers, had his confidence dented with a 20-run opening over. Two consecutive short balls were pounded by Warner over cover and deep square-leg. When Reddy pitched it full, he was hit through the off side.

Manpreet Gony was the only bowler with respectable figures. Mishra, the most experienced, went for 44 off four. Twenty-six of those runs were scored by Ojha, who used his feet to smash two sixes down the ground.

Warner, who looked below his best on the more sluggish pitches in the West Indies, was at home here with the ball coming onto the bat. He played his trademark pulls, one of which brought up his century. His stand of 189 with Ojha was the second-best in the IPL, behind Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh's 206 for Kings XI Punjab in 2011.

The 126 between Dhawan and White wasn't lacking in quality either. The pair shrugged off a relatively slow first half with power hitting in the last nine overs. The partnership featured audacious shots like the Dilscoop and the paddle sweep, interspersed with powerful straight hits and muscled sixes over deep midwicket.

Dhawan was particularly strong over the on side, hitting consecutive sixes off left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, and raced to his fifty with consecutive straight hits off Irfan Pathan.

When the slower bowlers tossed it up, Dhawan hammered over the on side; when Morne Morkel aimed at the base of the stumps, he strolled across his stumps and paddled over the helpless short fine leg fielder. A century was there for the taking against a stunned bowling attack, but a brilliant fielding effort from Nadeem, a direct hit from behind square leg, caught Dhawan a mile out of his crease.

White, who had earlier brought up the century stand with a six over deep midwicket off Nadeem, holed out to a top edge in the final over. Chargers, in the last nine overs, plundered 117 runs. Their bowlers, however, failed to defend that effort.

Delhi Daredevils v Kolkata Knight Riders, IPL 2012, Delhi,Cricinfo

Kolkata Knight Riders 154 for 4 (McCullum 56, Gambhir 36) beat Delhi Daredevils 153 for 9 (Pathan 36, Kallis 2-20) by six wickets

The clash between the two most impressive teams in the tournament proved to be a one-sided affair as Kolkata Knight Riders cruised to a six-wicket victory at a packed Feroz Shah Kotla, displacing Delhi Daredevils from the top spot they had held virtually from the start of the tournament.

Jacques Kallis made two big early breakthroughs, Sunil Narine continued to confound batsmen and Rajat Bhatia quietly continued to prove an important cog in Knight Riders' bowling as they stifled Daredevils' formidable batting. The chase of 154 proved straightforward, the only real moment of concern for Knight Riders coming when Brendon McCullum brutally pulled a delivery straight at their dug-out in the 15th over.

Daredevils' two most productive batsmen this season have been Virender Sehwag and Kevin Pietersen, and their consistency had so far shielded the rest of the team's batting from too much scrutiny. With Sehwag finally failing after a record five half-centuries in a row and Pietersen back home, the rest of the line-up couldn't quite deliver.

Brett Lee began with a maiden to David Warner, who was playing his first game of the tournament, but Sehwag and Warner slammed 34 off the next two to provide Daredevils a flying start. Kallis nipped that stand early by slipping in a length delivery after a couple of shorter ones to trap Sehwag lbw. Warner also didn't last long, nicking behind in Kallis' next over.

That over ended with an angry confrontation between Mahela Jayawardene and Gautam Gambhir after Jayawardene survived a loud and confident shout for caught-behind. In the next Kallis over, there was less doubt about whether Jayawardene edged the ball but he was lucky as wicketkeeper McCullum spilled a tough chance to his right. He couldn't capitalise on the lives though, as he was run-out attempting a suicidal single. Gambhir under-armed a direct hit and spiritedly celebrated the wicket.

Bhatia and Narine choked the batsmen, conceding only 25 runs in a five-over stretch in the middle of the innings. The biggest struggle was for the out-of-form Ross Taylor, who scratched around for 16 off 27 deliveries, potentially putting his place in jeopardy. A cameo from Irfan Pathan, who again showed off his clean hitting, lifted Daredevils beyond 150 despite four wickets in the final over from Narine.

That total didn't prove too much of a challenge for Knight Riders, particularly as the Daredevils bowlers provided plenty of freebies down the leg side. Gambhir and McCullum put on their fourth fifty-plus stand in six innings to demoralise Daredevils as they raced to 60 for 0 by the end of the Powerplay. Gambhir was the more fluent of the openers, extending his prolific run this season with a quick 36 before being bowled by fast bowler Varun Aaron, playing his first match in five months.

McCullum tried to muscle the bowling early on but couldn't time it too well, though he gradually grew in confidence and was reverse-sweeping Irfan Pathan by the time he was nearing his half-century. As Gambhir's striking had reduced the asking rate, Kallis didn't need to try anything fancy, sticking to conventional strokes as he and McCullum added 60 before they were dismissed off consecutive deliveries by Umesh Yadav, who regularly reached 150kph.

Those strikes weren't enough, though, for Daredevils to hang on to the No. 1 spot, as Knight Riders coasted to victory with eight deliveries to spare.