Spinners lift Kolkata's Knight at home

Hosts' tweakers Chakravarthy and Narine step up against DC to help team fetch maximum points at Eden Gardens

-  SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

IN the lead-up to the game between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders, there were some shenanigans going on.

The hosts wanted to use one of the practice strips meant for the visitors. It was reported that Bharath Arun, Kolkata's bowling coach, took Harshit Rana but they were shooed away by the Eden curator, Sujan Mukherjee.

Even as some other home teams get the surfaces they want, Mukherjee has refused to play ball. On multiple occasions he has said he doesn't have to prepare wickets to suit the franchise (last year, Nitish Rana, the skipper at the time, even lamented its absence). At last year's World Cup, the strips offered lots of spin.

In this year's IPL, so far anyway, the pitches had been manna from heaven for the batters.