Morkel, Pathan ensure Delhi win

Morne Morkel, with three wickets, and Irfan Pathan, with an unbeaten 42, were the chief architects of Delhi's comfortable victory over Kolkata. After being put in to bat Kolkata managed only 97/9 in their 12 overs in a rain curtailed game. 

The game started after a two and a half hour delay but burst into action immediately after Virender Sehwag chose to bowl. Kolkata opened with two of their foreign players, Brendon McCullum and Jacques Kallis. The duo were on the attack right from the word go and it brought about the dismissal of the former too. Roelof van der Merwe, who opened the attack along with Irfan Pathan, skidded one through to beat McCullum's heave and caught him plumb in front. Morne Morkel gave Delhi a lot more to cheer about in the very next over. 

The lanky pacer did not shy away from attempting yorkers in his very first over and executed it to perfection too. The first one was to his country man, Kallis. Not many bowlers around the world could lay claim to breaching Kallis' water tight technique but Morkel did exactly that. The middle stump was knocked over and Morkel had a wicket that he could savour for the years to come. He was not done yet though. Manoj Tiwary, one of India's bright young prospects offered an almost embarrassed look after he let the first ball he faced go under his bat to clean up the stumps. Morkel was on a hat-trick and Delhi were over the moon in just the third over.Yusuf Pathan survived the hat-trick ball but did nothing more. He was done in by a sharp away moving delivery from Umesh Yadav and KKR were tottering at 31/4 in the 4th over. 

Gautam Gambhir, the KKR skipper, had a big task of resurrecting the innings and he went about it in earnest along with Debabrata Das. The duo had brought a sembalnce of normalcy with a 23 run stand before Morkel returned to get rid of Gambhir. The southpaw fell in a fashion that brought about a sense of deja vu to many of his dismissals in recent times. He was cramped up for room and deflected the ball onto the stumps off an inside edge after prodding out tentatively. KKR were pushed onto the backfoot once again. Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Das struck some lusty blows to boost KKR a bit but this stand too was nipped in the bud. Delhi were fortunate this time around as KKR dug themselves a hole by some terrible running. Poor calling from both batsmen saw Das stranded near Shukla at the non-striker's end and it was Delhi all the way from this point. They continued to lose wickets at regular intervals and almost suffered the ignominy of being bowled out in just 12 overs! 

Chasing a low target of 97, Delhi never seemed to be in any trouble at all. Aaron Finch and Virender Sehwag began in exactly the manner that was expected. The opening stand of 49 at nearly eight an over was the final nail on the coffin for KKR. Both openers fell in the span of an over but Irfan Pathan who came in at one drop scored freely including some lovely clean hits to ensure that there were no hiccups for Delhi in the chase. A look at the scorecard could be quite misleading. Delhi got to the target only in the last over but it does not tell the ease with which they won. 

Kolkata will be devastated with the result and will have to pick themselves up quickly to get going. Delhi on the other hand could not have asked for a better start and will be aiming to carry the momentum forward.