You don't slog Mr Hogg

Manish Pandey made a fine stop at backward point, diving full length to his right, to create a run-out opportunity in the first over. The batsman Quinton de Kock was struggling to get to the bowler's end, but he was saved as Pandey's throw missed the target. And with no one backing up, it went all the way to the boundary. Redemption arrived in the sixth over as Pandey took a head-high catch to dismiss his good friend and Karnataka team-mate Karun Nair. The ball wouldn't stop following Pandey though. In the seventh over, after a mix-up between Pawan Negi and Sanju Samson, Pandey took aim at the non-strikers' end again but struck the frantically-running Samson.

Mayank Agarwal, who beat Shreyas Iyer to open the batting alongside de Kock, met the first ball of the match with a straight bat and a high elbow to find a four over extra cover. You bruise a big fast bowler like Andre Russell at your peril though, and the West Indian responded by knocking over three wickets in two overs, including Agarwal, who was caught at third man while attempting another loft.

Daredevils were 55 for 5 when Carlos Brathwaite walked in. The man who went six, six, six and six last week at Eden Gardens to become a World T20 champion opened his account in the IPL with a lusty blow over the wide long-on boundary. Two balls later, though, he failed to pick a googly from Piyush Chawla and was pinned lbw.

Brad Hogg admitted that he was surprised by the bounce and carry offered by the Eden Gardens pitch. "I think I will bowl the same way I do at the WACA," he told the commentators. That meant trouble for the Daredevils batsmen. Negi and Samson were teased with flight and confounded by wrong 'uns, which led Hogg's former Australia team-mate Matthew Hayden to say, "I always found him difficult to slog. He is deceptive through the air." Negi learned that very lesson the hard way when he charged down the track, swung across the line and was stumped.

Robin Uthappa in full flow is a delight. He showed glimpses of that during his 33-ball 35. In the fifth over of the chase, Uthappa pressed forward and punchily drove Zaheer Khan, splitting mid-off and mid-on to perfection. Four balls later, he produced an even better version of the shot, this time off Chris Morris, and held his pose. By then Knight Riders had knocked off about half their target.

When Colin Munro was picked ahead of Shakib Al Hasan, the Eden Gardens crowd would have expected the first instance of funkiness from the New Zealand basher. Instead, it came from Daredevils' No.8 Chris Morris. He dared to go against the spin and swatted Hogg over point (or square leg if you like) for a boundary.