The night belonged to The Kolkata Knightriders

The Rawalpindi Express expressed The Knightriders to victory

An inspired bowling performance by Shoaib Akhtar helped Kolkata Knight Riders score a 23-run win over Delhi Daredevils in their Indian Premier League match here yesterday.

After having his five-year cricket ban suspended for a month pending appeal, Shoaib Akhtar may have been out to prove a point, and he couldn't have done it in much more spectacular style.

Bowling at a shade over 93mph, Shoaib ripped through Virender Sehwag, Gautan Gambhir, AB de Villiers and Manoj Tiwary in just three overs. Shell-shocked Delhi subsided to 110 all out, 23 runs short of Kolkata's 133 for 6. Shoaib finished with four for 11.

Earlier winning the toss Knightriders choose Kolkata opener Salman Butt's 48 was the best individual total of a low-scoring encounter that saw the Daredevils fail to chase down the Knight Riders' meagre total of 133 for six. Amit Mishra's 31 was as good as it got for the visitors, who managed just 110 runs before they were bowled out inside 18 overs.

Meanwhile, Knight Riders decided to release five of their fringe players — Ranadeb Bose, Sourasish Lahiri, Rohan Banerjee, Yashpal Singh and C. Pujara — to bring down the size of the contingent to 18 from 23.

This, as explained by the team ‘boss’, Shah Rukh Khan, was done to allow the coach John Buchanan to concentrate on the core group with the IPL nearing an end.

The victory continues a marked turnaround in fortunes for the Knight Riders, who are now on a three-match winning streak after suffering four successive defeats.

The scores:

Kolkata Knight Riders: S. Butt c McGrath b Yomahesh 48, A. Chopra c Maharoof b Sangwan 13, S. Ganguly b Yomahesh 7, D. Hussey c Tewari b Maharoof 31, T. Taibu (run out) 7, L.R. Shukla c Gambhir b Maharoof 10, W. Saha (not out) 5, I. Abdullah (not out) 1, Extras (lb-3, w-7, nb-1): 11, Total (for six wkts. in 20 overs): 133.

Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-47, 3-87, 4-99, 5-119, 6-129.

Delhi Daredevils bowling: McGrath 4-0-22-0, Sangwan 4-0-29-1, Yomahesh 4-0-34-2, Maharoof 4-0-25-2, Mishra 3-0-13-0, Sehwag 1-0-7-0.

Delhi Daredevils: G. Gambhir c Hussey b Akhtar 10, V. Sehwag c Saha b Akhtar 0, A.B. de Villiers c Taibu b Akhtar 7, M. Tiwary lbw b Akhtar 9, S. Dhawan b Dinda 7, T. Dilshan (run out) 25, A. Mishra c Ishant b Shukla 31, F. Maharoof (run out) 10, V. Yomahesh b Shukla 3, P. Sangwan c Hussey b Shukla 0, G. McGrath (not out) 0; Extras (lb-1, w-7): 8; Total (in 17.5 overs): 110.

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-17, 3-28, 4-28, 5-43, 6-67, 7-101, 8-105, 9-105.

Kolkata Knight Riders bowling: Akhtar 3-0-11-4, Ishant 3-0-18-0, Dinda 4-0-29-1, Ganguly 4-0-23-0, Abdullah 3-0-22-0, Shukla 0.5-0-6-3.