Today’s action from the IPL saw the Delhi Daredevils visiting Kolkata to play the Knight Riders. It looked to be a fairly straightforward affair. Ganguly won the toss and elected to bat, but he was unable to repeat his sparkling form from his previous match, and Kolkata managed a miserable 133 from their 20 overs.

It looked like a walk in the park for Delhi. Sehwag and Gambhir have established themselves as the most destructive opening partnership in the tournament. Even if one of them failed, the other was likely to win the game single-handed. But I had entirely forgotten that the Knight Riders team had recently been strengthened by the arrival of the Rawalpindi Express. Shoaib Akhtar might be in disgrace in Pakistan, but in Kolkata he is everyone’s hero. Three overs later, Shoaib had taken 4-11 and broken the back of the Delhi innings. Not only had he disposed of Sehwag and Gambhir, he did for DeVilliers and Tiwary as well. The top four Delhi batsmen made only 26 runs between them. It is just possible that a determined innings from one of the lower order batsmen could have won the game. Kolkata’s total was very low, after all. But Ganguly is a wily old captain and he put the squeeze on when it was needed. Kolkata won by 23.

So now everyone who is following the IPL will be rushing to their schedules to find out if they still have a game to play against Kolkata. The bad news for the Royals is that they do. It is a week today. Oh well, with any luck Shoaib will have got himself suspended again by then.