Gambhir won the toss and, given the rain around, decided to bowl first and possibly let Duckworth-Lewis help them out in the chase. Deccan were desperate for a result and they got a steady, if unspectacular, start through their experienced opening partnership of Dhawan and Sangakarra. They both played some cracking shots through the off side when given width but played within themselves to try to make it through the first 6 unscathed. However, the skipper played an uncharacteristic slog to the penultimate ball of the 6th over to be cleaned up by Balaji, transforming a solid 37/0 into a precarious 39/1 at the end of the powerplay. Dhawan and Patel set about building the partnership that did so well in the last match but, as so often been the case this year, the introduction of Bhatia completely halted any momentum that Deccan were looking to build. Sides really need to work out how to score against him, his 1-26 was one of his most expensive spells yet, as he continues to sap any life out of an innings by pitching it up with a long on and long off with clever changes of pace, I'm surprised more players don't try to sweep him. The last 10 overs went for just 59 runs as constant wickets falling saw new men walking to the crease to play themselves in and struggle to get going. Dhawan battled to reach 50 but was guilty of decelerating through the middle overs, he scored 32 from his first 25 balls and just 18 from the next 25. The undoubted star of the show was Brett Lee who hit the deck hard with good pace to show why he is now considered a 20/20 specialist with fantastic figures of 4-0-15-1, I love watching him play due to attitude and commitment with the ball and in the field and its great to see him performing well as the KKR spearhead. Equally, Balaji and Narine continued their good form with 2-22 and 2-26 respectively. Deccan's batting, in particular the middle-lower order, continues to disappoint and that is a real issue that needs to be solved, scoring just 126/7 was simply not good enough.
DC possess the best pace bowler in the world and its vital that the batsmen give him and the rest more to defend, 126 was unlikely to be a winning total as it proved. Steyn was as brilliant as ever, sending back McCullum in his opening 3 over spell over and coming close to cleaning up Gambhir and Bisla too. However, without Ishant Sharma they simply lack another quality pace bowler and in that sense they have been unlucky. Gambhir and Kallis looked set to walk KKR home as neither looked in much trouble against the DC spinners, given the manageable required rate. Gambhir (30 from 28) had other ideas as he decided to play an inexplicable loft straight to mid-off to hand Deccan a life-line, had they lost today he would have been livid with himself and his shot selection, with the score at 64/3. Pathan fell soon after, playing a brain-less slog that he missed all ends up to have his stumps pegged back, giving plenty of ammunition to his growing list of critics. Steyn was brought back in the 17th over to bowl his last one and he proved too good for team-mate Kallis, who knicked his first ball through the slips for a boundary only to feather the next one through to Patel behind the stumps, Steyn finishing with 2/24 and another world class showing. Tiwary and Das were left needing a run a ball from the last few overs, it should have been easy but a few dots later the pressure was on. Das played a big shot out to long on where Pratap Singh misjudged the flight and ended up diving forward to spill what should have a simple catch. At the time Kolkata needed 17 from 14 and that wicket would have ramped up the pressure, particularly given the way KKR had thrown away the Punjab game from a similar position. Tiwary, despite signs of serves, saw his side home with an important (30* from 28) as they won with 5 wickets to spare in the final over. Deccan's spinners in Mishra (1-27) and Ankit Sharma (1-19) also did well but could not build up any pressure with such a low total to defend.
Kolkata picked up another win but once again are still not quite firing on all cylinders. Their bowling performance was brilliant and this part of their game has been good all tournament, but their highly rated batting line-up is still struggling, Yusuf in particular may not have many chances remaining. As for Deccan its hard to see how they can change things round dramatically, there are few players of real quality sitting unused on the bench, domestic or overseas, they just need their current line-up to start performing and offering the excellent Steyn some support.
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