In a breath taking win over Chennai Super Kings, the Kolkata Knight Riders are celebrating their first win in 5 seasons. They have finally clinched the trophy. Almost getting through, KKR started off powerfully losing the plot towards the end but did very well in the last two overs.

SRK was extremely happy and thanked Gambhir and the boys. His excitement was seen as he was summer-saulting on the field. He thanked the Chennai team and the crowd for their hospitality. KKR won the match by 5 wickets. With a 190 target set by the home team, it was a mad chase for the visitors.

Suresh Raina is the first player to manage 400 runs or more in each of the five IPL tournaments. Raina, playing in his last innings of the IPL 5, took his aggregate to 441 (ave.25.94) in 19 matches and became the highest run-getter for Chennai in the IPL 5. Raina (441), Plessis (398), Bravo (371), Dhoni (357) and Vijay (336) were the leading run-getters in the IPL 5. Raina has extended his aggregate to 2254 (ave.33.64) in 81 matches the highest in the history of the IPL. Manvinder Bisla’s superb 89 off 48 balls are the highest by a Kolkata batsman against Chennai in the IPL.

Bisla has got his first Man of the Match award in the IPL. Bisla’s innings is his highest score in Twenty20 his fourth fifty in this format. Bisla’s innings is his second fifty in the IPL his first was 75 against Bangalore at Bangalore on March 16, 2010. Jacques Kallis (69 off 49 balls) has batted quite well to post his second fifty in the competition his 16th fifty in the IPL overall. With 16 fifties each, Kallis and Gambhir now share an IPL record for the most half-centuries.

Michael Hussey is the first batsman to register a fifty on his birthday in the IPL. Hussey’s superb 54 off 43 balls is his second fifty in the IPL 2012 his sixth fifty overall in the IPL. Sunil Narine, thanks to his strike rate, economy rate and the bowling average, was an obvious choice for the Player of the Tournament for capturing 24 wickets at 13.50 in 15 matches. Narine has become the first bowler to bag 20 wickets or more for Kolkata in an IPL competition. All’s well that ends well. KKR won’t get over their excitement for a few more days. Hats off the SRK nd his men.

Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders, the top two teams of the league go head-to-head in the first DLF IPL Playoffs 2012 which will be held in the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune

Undoubtedly, DD and KKR are at their best forms and are the best teams in the competition.DD sit at the top of the table with 11 wins from 16 league fixtures, while KKR are one point less and have won 10 of their 16 league fixtures.

Both teams are conscious of the fact that they’ve not been very convincing in their last few league matches. The Delhi Daredevils had won eight of their first ten matches, but since then they’ve only managed to win three of their remaining six fixtures. The only thing that should worry the DD team is that both the batting and bowling units have failed in their last three defeats.

Despite finishing the league season with consecutive victories, Kolkata Knight Riders will know they weren’t at their best in their last few games. The batting certainly hasn’t looked as good as it did during their eight-match unbeaten streak and they will need their batsmen to come out firing at this important stage in the competition.

In their previous meetings, the head-to-head record between the Delhi Daredevils and the Kolkata Knight Riders stands at four matches apiece.

When these two teams clashed in the league stage, it was the visiting team that prevailed on both occasions. In the first meeting at the Eden Gardens, the Delhi Daredevils recorded an eight-wicket win in a rain-affected match, while in the return fixture at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi, KKR chased down 154 to win by six wickets.

Kolkata Knight Riders Team Squad:

G Gambhir, S Ladda, L Balaji, R Bhatia, MS Bisla, DB Das, M de Lange, BJ Haddin, Iqbal Abdulla, CS Jani, JH Kallis, B Lee, BB McCullum, EJG Morgan, SP Narine, YK Pathan, JL Pattinson, SV Samson, PJ Sangwan, I Saxena, Shami Ahmed, Shakib Al Hasan, LR Shukla, RN ten Doeschate, MK Tiwary, JD Unadkat

Delhi Daredevils Team Squad:

V Sehwag, MC Juneja, VR Aaron, AB Agarkar, P Bisht, R Bist, GH Bodi, DAJ Bracewell, U Chand, AJ Finch, DPMD Jayawardene, GJ Maxwell, M Morkel, S Nadeem, Y Nagar, PT Naik, P Negi, NV Ojha, IK Pathan, KP Pietersen, KC Raval, AD Russell, AM Salvi, LRPL Taylor, RE van der Merwe, Y Venugopal Rao, Vikas Mishra, DA Warner, TP Yadav, UT Yadav, Zafir Patel

Kolkata looks strong in paper but Delhi is piped as team to surprise in this year IPL. So get ready for a ride to dare at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi.

The 51^st match of KKR and DD is going to be very interesting, since Both the teams have the right ingredients, which are needed for a perfect Twenty20 recipe, but the biggest challenge before them would be to make winning a habit this season and pose serious threats to the likes of Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Royals Challengers Bangalore.

For Kolkata skipper Gautam Gambhir, who has been exposed of Indian vice-captaincy, the tournament would mean a lot personally as he would be like to show his leadership skills, besides contributing at the top of the order.

Yusuf Pathan, the Knight Riders have one of the most feared hitters and the team would be hoping for his bat to do all the talking this time around after a fairly quiet outing last year. The Knight Riders also have balanced bowling attack, which will be led by Australian speedster Brett Lee.

The Daredevils, meanwhile, would be desperate for a turnaround after finishing last in 2011 with just four wins to their credit.

Daredevils, however, will be playing without of big players like Mahela Jayawardene, Kevin Pietersen and David Warner in the match as they are busy playing for their respective countries.

In eight previous matches between the Delhi Daredevils four matches and the Kolkata Knight Riders had won three matches. One other match – scheduled to be played at the Feroz Shah Kotla in 2008 – was called off because of showers.

In the most recent meeting between the two teams at the Eden Gardens earlier this season, the Delhi Daredevils comfortably cruised to an eight-wicket win in a rain-affected contest.

Till date The Delhi Daredevils have the best scoring rate of all the teams and The Kolkata Knight Riders have the best overall economy rate in IPL 2012.

Teams :

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (Capt.), Manoj Tiwary, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Yusuf Pathan, Rajat Bhatia, Chirag Jani, Debabrata Das, Iqbal Abdulla, Iresh Saxena, Jaidev Unadkat, Laxmipathy Balaji, Manvinder Bisla, Pradeep Sangwan, Sanju Samson, Sarabjit Singh Ladda, Mohd Shami Ahmed, Brad Haddin (wk), Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Eoin Morgan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Marchant de Lange.

Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag (Capt.), Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Umesh Yadav, Puneet Bisht, Robin Bist, Naman Ojha (wk), Shahbaz Nadeem, Venugopal Rao, Vikas Mishra, Yogesh Nagar, Zafir Patel, Sunny Gupta, Tejashwi Yadav, Aavishkar Salvi, Kuldeep Raval, Manpreet

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