Hoping for a resurgence, Kolkata were ready to take on a confident Delhi side at Kingsmead, Durban. McCullum won the toss and he elected to bat first. While Delhi fielded an unchanged side, Kolkata made two changes. Moises Henriques replaced Chris Gayle and Laxmi Ratan Shukla made way for Yashpal Singh.
van Wyk opened the innings for Kolkata along with McCullum. The Knight Riders captain started off aggressively, trying to prove his detractors wrong. He took the attack to the opposition, dealing in boundaries and sixers. He was well supported by van Wyk, who played the ideal foil for McCullum. However, the Kolkata captain could not convert his start into a big score as he was dismissed by Sangwan in the 7th over. This brought to an end, a partnership of 58 runs between McCullum and van Wyk. After an expensive beginning, The Delhi bowlers bowled a tight line and brought down the run-rate. At the end of 10 overs the Knight Riders were at 69/1.
Brad Hodge was the next man in and was slow to start off. Meanwhile, van Wyk doned the role of an aggressor, scoring quick runs after the break. van Wyk took the attack to Sangwan, scoring three consecutive fours off the 13th over. However, the bowler got his break dismissing Brad Hodge in the same over. Henriques came in at the fall of the wicket and he gave good support as van Wyk was blazing away. van Wyk went on to score his first fifty. The pair continued to score at a fast rate, taking Kolkata to a good score. After a splendid innings, van Wyk was out to Nehra in the last over, going for quick runs. The explosive batsman managed to score 74 runs off just 48 balls. His innings included 11 boundaries. Kolkata ended the innings at 154/3, thanks to explosive batting by van Wyk, well supported by McCullum and Henriques.
Delhi began the chase with Gambhir and Warner at the crease. The duo started off well, playing for singles and twos with boundaries in-between. Warner and Gambhir complemented each other as they scored at a good rate. On the other hand, Kolkata's fielding woes continued as mis-fields and dropped catches dominated the proceedings for the Knight Riders team. The captain McCullum himself put down a sitter off Agarkar's bowling, giving Gambhir a second chance. However, Agarkar got his break dismissing the aggressive Warner in the same over, thanks to the safe hands of Henriques. A partnership of 60 runs by the Delhi openers was brought to an end with Warner's dismissal. Dilshan came in at number three and he continued the good start provided by Warner. Going into the 'Strategy Timeout' Daradevils were 76/1, requiring 79 more runs to win off 60 balls.
Gambhir and Dilshan resumed after the break playing in a risk-free manner. Gambhir's drop catch proved costly for Kolkata as the left-hander went on to his fifty. The fielding of Kolkata got from bad to worse when Dilshan was put down by Arindam Ghosh off Ishant Sharma's bowling. Dilshan and Gambhir made good use of the chances offered, getting the Delhi team closer to the required target. Requiring 11 runs to win off the last two overs, Dilshan brought down the required runs with a six off Ishant Sharma. Gambhir finished it off with a boundary, announcing his return to form. Gambhir remained unbeaten on 71 off just 57 balls while Dilshan managed to score 42 off 34 balls.
Kolkata blew their chances away thanks to their miserable fielding and catching. The efforts of van Wyk went in vain as Delhi won their fifth match due to the efforts of Gambhir, Dilshan and Warner.
Post Match Quotes:
McCullum: For most parts of the game, we were in the match. I set the tone with the dropped catches. I thought 20 odd runs more would be a bridge too far for them. I thought all 3 guys played exceptionally well. Yeah, there's a lot of positive but its always hard when you're losing, you cant get that get momentum back. We're ticking every box we can but unfortunately we cant quite get the results.
Gambhir (MoM): It was very important for us to win this game. Amit bowled really well, Nehra bowled really well, they really pulled things in our favor. Chasing 154 on this track was always chaseable. To be very honest, I'm not hitting the ball well so the only thing that I had was to bat through the innings. We discussed this in the team meeting that someone who's set has to finish the job off and today it was my job.
Trivia:
van Wyk got the first fifty of his IPL career.
Kolkata went on to register their highest score in IPL 2009 beating their 153/3 against Punjab.
Dirk Nannes ended with figures of 0 for 49 in his 4 overs. This were the most runs conceded by a bowler for Delhi in this season.
The partnership between Gambhir and Warner worth 60 runs was the highest opening partnership for Delhi in IPL 2009.
Gambhir got to his 6th IPL fifty when he creamed Ishant through the off side in the 16th over. This was his 1st fifty this season.
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