• Home
• /
• Cricket

‘Brilliant knock from Jean-Paul Duminy’

Karthik-Duminy duo forge 58-run partnership for the fourth wicket against Kolkata

JP Duminy and Nathan Coulter-Nile celebrate Delhi Daredevils’ victory. — KT photo by Rahul Gajjar

Kolkata Knight Riders, after their superb opening match victory over defending champions Mumbai Indians in Pepsi IPL 2014, were clear favourites when they faced Delhi Daredevils at the Dubai International Stadium on Saturday night.

KKR boosted their chances of their second victory when Gautam Gambhir’s team posted 166 after batting first. However, gutsy half-centuries from captain Dinesh Karthik and South African all-rounder JP Duminy helped Delhi overhaul the target with three balls to spare.

Delhi, who endured an embarrassing eight-wicket defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their first game, suffered an early setback when opener Murali Vijay got run out in the first over. But a 29-run second wicket partnership between Karthik and Mayank Agarwal in 3.1 overs brought Delhi back into the match. Though Ross Taylor too departed early, Duminy’s arrival turned the things around. Karthik and Duminy chipped in with a 58-run partnership for the fourth wicket to set the pace for Delhi.

While talking about Duminy’s knock, Karthik told reporters: “Brilliant knock. He is a world-class player. He is able to stand his ground in pressure and hit the big shots when it matters and at the same time knows how to knock the ball around. He is somebody who is very confident and the key to our batting plans.”

Karthik smashed 56 off 40 balls with five fours and two sixes, while Duminy remained not out on 52 off 35 balls with three fours and three sixes.

“The good thing was that we always kept the run-rate in check. It wasn’t going too far ahead of us. We were playing good cricketing shots and getting it off for boundaries. We weren’t panicking at any stage and we were running well between the wickets. So it was a good partnership.”

He said his team were confident of chasing down the target.

“It was a good wicket to bat on. They have a solid bowling attack, no doubt about that, but we have good batters. It is important that we trust our batters and we had belief that we can get the target.”

Regarding his decision to send Manoj Tiwary at No 6, the Chennai-based batsman said: “We wanted to keep Manoj till the end because he has played (Sunil) Naraine before. We all know that Naraine bowls right at the bottom end.

“We wanted to look for some boundaries and not play too many dot balls at that stage. Manoj has obviously a better idea of playing Naraine.” Karthik, who received Rs12.5 crore in the IPL auction, said his focus will be how to help Delhi reach the semi-finals.

“For me it is about winning as many games I can for the team and help Delhi reach the top four. That is the first aim for us and I’ll try and work towards that.”

Regarding the injury of Kevin Pitersen, who missed out the first two games of the IPL seventh season, Karthik said: “He is getting better, I can tell you that for sure. We are monitoring him really closely and we’ll definitely use the first chance we have to make him play.”

The 28-year old skipper backed Ross Taylor, who failed in the match against Kolkata, to come good in the upcoming matches.

“From the situation that we were in (against RCB in the first match at Sharjah), to get 145 was a good effort I thought. Ross played a key role in keeping things under control and towards the end he got a few boundaries. Cricket is a game where all the time you don’t keep hitting the ball well and we back him as a player. We trust him, we know he can win us some games and that is what we believe,” he said.

Karthik also hailed the contributions of Delhi coach Gary Kirsten.

“The good thing is that when you are winning, you don’t need to try too much. You have a winning combination right then and there. It is only when you don’t do well then it becomes a problem because anything you do might go wrong.

“So at this stage I would say that we are a very balanced and I have to give a lot of credit to coach Gary Kirsten because he is somebody who doesn’t get too emotional and swayed by things and results. He believes a lot in the process which is one of the key elements in IPL. He keeps believing in processes and keep doing the back work and keep it going without any stress to the players,” Karthik added.

Meanwhile Kolkata batsman Manish Pandey, who hit a 42-ball 48 with five fours, said his team had a good total on the board despite a slow start.

“We started on the slower side, but that was the plan after losing two early wickets as we could not afford to lose another quickly. A score of 166 wasn’t a small target. It is a T20 game and you never know what can happen.

“We gave away too many runs in two crucial overs. I thought that we are going to win the game comfortably but after Morkel’s over (the 18^th which went for 21 runs) it went in their favour. JP batted really well,” he said.