Raipur, May 2 (IANS): An unbeaten 66 of 42 balls by David Warner and fielding proved to be the difference as Delhi Daredevils beat Kolkata Knight Riders by seven wickets for their second successive win in the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium here Wednesday.
The new stadium here seems to be a happy hunting ground for the Daredevils. After winning just one match elsewhere in the entire tournament, they have won the last two matches played here.
Delhi through some brilliant fielding restricted the Knight Riders to 136 for seven. Kolkata on the other hand were abysmal in the field, they dropped four easy catches and were made to pay as the Daredevils cruised to 137 for three in just 17.5 overs.
After losing Virender Sehwag (17) and Mahela Jayawardene (5) cheaply, David Warner (66 not out) and Unmukt Chand (37) came to the party. The duo put on a partnership of 95 runs for the fourth wicket taking Delhi to within touching distance.
Warner, though, was lucky to still be at the crease after Bisla missed an easy stumping chance and then Kallis gave him another reprieve dropping him on the long on boundary.
Kolkata, electing to bat, lost captain Gautam Gambhir in the first over, becoming the fifth batsman to be dismissed without facing a ball in the IPL, run out by Irfan Pathan.
Manvinder Bisla (4) could not repeat his heroics of the previous match against the Chennai Super Kings where he scored 92. Bisla after hitting a stylish boundary in the first over became to eager to hit another big shot and was cleaned up by Umesh Yadav.)
Yusuf Pathan (20) and Jacques Kallis' (12) batting woes continued as both of them fell courtesy some stunning catching by Irfan Pathan and Ben Rohrer respectively.
Yadav held on to another tough catch as Eoin Morgan (10) too failed to impress.
With Kolkata 48 for four, Debabrata Das (18) and Rajat Bhatia (26 not out) strung together a crucial 34-run stand for the sixth wicket.
Sumit Narwal came in and made batting look easy smashing four fours as he scored 23 off 15. His and Brett Lee's innings, who smacked 16 off 6 balls, gave the innings a much needed push and took them to a fighting total.