Kolkata Knight Riders in the final of IPL 2012
Kolkata Knight Riders has reached the final of the Indian Premiere League for the first time in the fifth edition of the tournament after defeating Delhi Daredevils by 18 runs in the First Qualifier held at Pune. Yusuf Pathan become the Player of the Match. Read the article for more details.
Kolkata Knight Riders in the final of IPL 2012
By defeating Delhi Daredevils in the first Qualifier, Kolkata Knight Riders is now in the final of the fifth edition of the Indian Premiere League (IPL 2012). In a spinner friendly wicket at Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium (Pune), KKR team won by 18 runs to reach their first final in the history of IPL. Kolkata Knight Riders performed miserably in the previous four edition of the tournament. After the win, the owner of the team Shahrukh Khan seems extremely happy. Yusuf Pathan become the Player of the Match for his aggressive unbeaten 40 runs off just 21 balls.
After winning the toss, captain of Kolkata Knight Riders Gautam Gambhir decided to bat first. His decision seems to be right when he along with Brendon McCulum put together a quick 48 runs in 6th over. Gambhir played some aggressive strokes before being run out on 32. After the wicket of Gambhir, McCullum and Kallis built a good partenership of 39 runs. After loosing Shakib and Kallis in quick session, Kolkata were in trouble with a score of 4/106 in 16 overs. Out of form batsman Yusuf Pathan and Lakshmi ratna Shukla were on crease. They both took Kolkata to a respectable score by scoring 56 runs in last four overs. Yusuf played his best innings of this season. He hits two monstrous sixes and three fours in his 40 off 21 balls. Shukla also played the inning of 24 in just 11 balls. The final score of KKR reads 4/162, which was a good score to defend on a slow track and having three spinners in their team.
Delhi Daredevils looses the wickets of their openers at the start of their innings. Wicketkeeper Naman Ojha and Mahela Jayawardhene recovered from the early looses by making the highest partenership of the match. But when they were looking good towards the target, the KKR spinners choked runs in the middle overs and Ojha lost his wicket on the bowling of Rajat Bhatia. After that Jayawardhene was stumped by wicketkeeper McCullum on the bowling of Iqbal Abdulla. Delhi Daredevils was 18 runs short of their target at the end. Here is the brief scorecard of this match –
Kolkata Knight Riders: 4/162 in 20 overs (Yusuf Pathan – 40 off 21 balls, Gambhir – 32 off 16 balls, Negi – 1/18)
Delhi Daredevils: 8/144 in 20 overs (Jayawardene – 40 off 33 balls, Kallis – 2/24, Naraine – 2/24)
