Kolkata Knight Riders seem to have overcome their worries regarding a perfect team-combination. The men led by Dinesh Karthik have left a bittersweet taste in Gautam Gambhir’s mouth on his return to the Eden Gardens for the first time after leaving the team.

Delhi Daredevils were handed a 71-run defeat by a clinical KKR side that was struggling to turn things around after a soft start.

Winning the toss DD decided to bowl first. It was appearing to be good decision until Andre Russell and Nitish Rana stitched a 61 runs’ 5^th-wicket stand off just 22 deliveries. Russell came in like a storm and added 41 runs from 12 deliveries before returning to the pavilion in the blink of an eye.

Rana contributed 59 runs to the total while facing 39 balls. Three more useful innings from Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, and Dinesh Karthik along with these two knock powered KKR to pose a daunting total of 200 runs for 9 wickets.

Rahul Tewatia took 3 wickets with Trent Boult and Chris Morris bagging 2 wickets each for the visitors. Shahbaz Nadeem and Mohammad Shami also picked up one wicket apiece while KKR were steering to a big total.

In response, DD’s batting line-up melted under pressure and halted at a puny 129-run score losing all their wickets. Rishabh Pant and Glenn Maxwell tried to offer some resurgence to their innings by scoring 40-odd runs each, but the rest of the batsmen couldn’t even reach the double-digits score which resulted in a disgraceful defeat for them.

Sunil Narine was pivotal in KKR’s success as he scalped 3 wickets to make them crumble within 14.2 overs. Kuldeep Yadav also took as many wickets while Piyush Chawla, Tom Curran, Shivam Mavi, and Russell joined the hunt by taking one scalp each.

Narine surpassed the mark of 100 wickets in the tournament to join the top 10 wicket-takers in IPL. He now has 102 wickets to his name in a list that is topped by Lasith Malinga who has taken 154 wickets.

KKR will face Rajasthan Royals in their next match on April 18. On the other hand, Delhi will look to mount a comeback against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their next match on April 21.