IPL: Kolkata Knight Riders Make It To Their First Final

On a turning pitch, Kolkata Knight Riders beat favourites Delhi Daredevils by 18 runs to make it their first ever IPL final.

Delhi Daredevils who had so far relied heavily on their openers – Sehwag and Warner – lost both of them in the first 13 balls in their chase of 163. But Jayawardene and Naman Ojha got together for the biggest partnership of the match and the runs came in good time as Delhi reached 83 for 2 in 10 overs. When Ojha fell to Abdullah, Venugopal Rao struggled to keep the momentum as he crawled to 13 of 22 balls. When Jayawardene got out the score was 108. Sehwag then made a tactical mistake by sending Negi ahead of Taylor. When Taylor finally came it at the fall of the fifth wicket, there was too much to do in little time.

Unlike Delhi, Kolkata had had a slow start to their innings. Delhi persisted with the fast bowling trio of Yadav, Aaron and Morkel. Gambhir continued his good form with an innings of 32 of only 16 balls. At 106 for 4 after 16 overs, it looked unlikely that Kolkata will put up a big score. But Yususf Pathan who so far had not contributed significantly in this season of the IPL and Shukla scored 56 runs of the last 4 overs with 32 coming in the last 2. The fast bowlers were taken apart as all three went for plenty.

Finally this late onslaught proved to be the difference between the two sides. The final will be played on 27^th May at Chennai.