| Scores | Upcoming | Results |
<,b>Kolkata: Skipper Gautam Gambhir (41) and Sunil Narine (4-13) helped Kolkata Knight Riders beat Delhi Daredevils by six wickets in the IPL 6 opener at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Yusuf Pathan (18 not out) and Eoin Morgan (14 not out) steered the hosts to victory with 8 balls to spare as the defending champions started their journey on the positive note.
Chasing 129-run target, Knight Riders lost Manoj Tiwary (23) and Gambhir (41) in quick succession in the later stage to provide a glimpse of hopes for the visitors but it turns out to be too little too late.
Shahbaz Nadeem struck to get rid of Tiwary soon after Botha dismissed Gambhir in the previous over. Tiwary hit two fours in his patient run-a-ball innings and was part of a decent 41-run stand for the third wicket with his skipper.
Spinner Johan Botha trapped Gambhir leg before to give Daredevils a valuable breakthrough and reduced KKR to 93/3 in 13.1 overs.
Gambhir smashed a six and five boundaries in his quick-fire 29 balls knock.
Knight Riders lost Jacques Kallis (23) after he added 47 runs for the second wicket with skipper Gambhir.
Kallis smacked five boundaries in his 20-ball quick innings before succumbing to spinner Shahbaz Nadeem in the eighth over as KKR reach 52/2 in 7.2 overs.
KKR raced to 40/1 in first five overs after losing Bisla in the second over.
Knight Riders lost opener Manvinder Bisla (4) early in the second over, when pacer Ashish Nehru struck in his first over to give Daredevils an early breakthrough.
Earlier, Sunil Narine (4-13) led a brilliant bowling unit to help defending champions Knight Riders bowl Daredevils out for 128.
'Mystery' spinner Narine continued his wicket-taking spree as Daredevils lost wickets at regular intervals and bundled out for just 128 runs in 20 overs.
Delhi skipper Mahela Jayawardene (66) fought a lone battle as he smashed a six and eight boundaries in his 52-ball captain's knock.
Narine dismissed his countryman Andre Russell (4) in the eighteenth over to add more misery on the visitors.
Irfan Pathan (4) failed to read Narine as he became the second victim of the spinner in the sixteenth over as Daredevils continued to stutter in their innings.
Rajat Bhatia struck twice in consecutive overs to get rid of Johan Botha (7) and Naman Ojha (9).
Bhatia reduced Daredevils to 88/5 in 13.2 overs with his brilliant spell of 2-23 in four overs.
Daredevils lost three top-order batsmen inside nine overs.
KKR pacer Laxmipathy Balaji dismissed Manpreet Juneja (8) in the ninth over to reduce Daredevils to 59/3 in 8.5 overs.
Mystery spinner Sunil Narine struck in the sixth over to give Knight Riders second breakthrough as he removed Daredevils' David Warner (21).
Warner hit four boundaries in his 19-ball innings and added valuable 44-run stand for the second wicket with Mahela Jayawardene to steady Delhi's innings after losing Unmukt Chand (0) on the very first delivery of the match.
Knight Riders pace spearhead Brett Lee made the start of IPL 6 memorable by dismissing Chand with the first delivery of the opener after KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir won the toss and decided to field.
The defending champions drafted in Jacques Kallis, Eoin Morgan, Brett Lee and Sunil Narine as the four foreigners.
For Delhi Daredevils, the four overseas players are skipper Mahela Jayawardene, David Warner, Johan Botha and Andre Russell.
Teams:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Jacques Kallis, Laxmipathy Balaji, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manoj Tiwary, Manvinder Bisla (wk), Rajat Bhatia, Sunil Narine and Yusuf Pathan.
Delhi Daredevils: Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Andre Russell, Ashish Nehra, David Warner, Irfan Pathan, Johan Botha, Manpreet Juneja, Naman Ojha (wk), Shahbaz Nadeem Umesh Yadav and Unmukt Chand.
Brief scores
Delhi Daredevils 128 (Jayawardene 66, Narine 4-13, Bhatia 2-23, Lee 2-40)
Kolkata Knight Riders 129 for 4 (Gambhir 42, Nadeem 2-22)
Result Kolkata Knight Riders won by 6 wickets
Kolkata Knight Riders 2, Delhi Daredevils 0
MOM Sunil Narine (Kolkata Knight Riders)
