KKR cruise towards a comprehensive win over DD.

In second match of Indian Premier League 2016, Kolkata Knight Riders squared off against Delhi Daredevils at Eden Gardens. KKR was looking to get off to a wining start playing at home.
On the other hand, Delhi Daredevils have been lagging at the bottom of the table year after year and was hoping for productive season. Former Indian fast bowler, Zaheer Khan was  captaining  the side and Rahul Dravid as their mentor. A combination Delhi Daredevils will be banking on to get them the coveted trophy.
The pitch had a fair amount of grass on it. The wicket had something on offer to the fast bowlers in the first 6 overs. Gautam Gambhir won the toss and elected to bowl first.

PLAYING XI

Kolkata Knight Riders:-
Gautam Gambhir (C), Robin Uthappa (W), Manish Pandey, Colin Munro, Suryakumar Yadav, Yusuf Pathan, Andre Russell, Piyush Chawla, John Hastings, Brad Hogg, Umesh Yadav.
Delhi Daredevils:-
Quinton de Kock (W), Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Sanju Samson, Carlos Brathwaite, Pawan Negi, Chris Morris, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan (C), Nathan Coulter-Nile.

The openers of Delhi were on fire scoring 23 of the first two overs. Quinton de Kock was looking good along with Mayank Agarwal. But the double strike from the West Indian all rounder Andre Russell set the Delhi batsmen on the backfoot. Thereafter the wickets kept on falling with no real batting performance to talk about. The Delhi Daredevils were all out on 98 which was there 7th total below 100. The top score  by Quinton de Kock of 17 of 10 balls. The KKR bowlers bowled well. There were hardly any loose deliveries bowled by there bowlers. They were very precise with there line and length. Andre Russell and Brad Hogg were  the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 24 and 3 for 19 respectively of there four overs. Piyush Chawla and John Hastings shared 2 wickets each.
In the run chase KKR had no real trouble in chasing the target of 99. Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa gave a solid start to the KKR innings with yet another partnership of above 50. Robin Uthappa scoring 35 of 33 balls Gautam Gambhir scored 38 of 41 balls and small little cameo from Manish Pandey of 15 of 12 balls. The Daredevils bowling led by the India's  veteren fast bowler Zaheer Khan looked out of colour. Zaheer Khan who was playing after a long time looked scratchy as he was expensive with the ball.
It's a new season, but the same old story for Delhi. Really hope, like Zaheer put it, that it's their first and last bad game. From Kolkata's perspective though, a thoroughly comprehensive win. This should get them warmed up nicely for the competition. Also it will be interesting to see how Delhi approaches their combination. There are plenty of excellent young players and Dravid's mentorship will be the key, going into the tournament.