Buchanan loses the plot again

same old story

If Kolkata Knight Riders end their campaign on three points,as is looking increasingly likely,a lot of the blame must fall on super-coach John Buchanans rather inexplicable tinkering. On Tuesday,the Kolkata side got their best start of the tournament so far,with Brendon McCullum coming out swinging hard,missing a few and hitting a few. Having got to a pacy 58 off the first six,especially by their standards,they lost their way completely. Brad Hodge,hero of their last two batting efforts,couldnt get the ball off the square,and a 19-ball 10 from his misfiring blade brought the run-rate back to familiar territory. When he fell,with six overs to play,out walked not Sourav Ganguly,who has been comfortably their second-best batsman but Moises Henriques,who started his final-stretch slog by playing out a maiden over. Kolkata ended up with 153 with as many as seven wickets still remaining. The pre-match talk must have involved a line on how they should get at least 150; someone obviously heard only 150. The total proved quite insufficient as Delhi Daredevils cantered to a nine-wicket victory.

Van Wyks turn

The only reason Kolkata even got that far was thanks to some controlled hitting from Morne van Wyk,promoted to open the innings. He kept his head even as McCullum went berserk,and slowly took control of proceedings even as people struggled to put bat to ball around him. His 48-ball 74 included 11 hits to the fence and he fell in the final over of the innings.

Easy chase

Things were made worse for Kolkata by another butter-fingered performance in the field they dropped three out of four catches that came their way. Delhis chase got off to a flying start as Gautam Gambhir slashed his way to 71 off 57 balls. Tillakaratne Dilshan gave him company with an unbeaten 42,including a huge six over point off Ishant Sharmas penultimate over in a 97-run second-wicket stand,but most of the damage was done by Kolkata themselves.