At Eden Gardens on Monday, Kolkata Knight Riders crushed Delhi Capitals seven wickets thanks to their dominance with the bat and the ball. With 21 balls remaining, they managed to chase down the score after holding the visitors to 153 for 9. They gained two points more than the third-place Chennai Super Kings with this win, solidifying their position in second place on the points table.
The midway overs made a difference.
Even though KKR’s middle overs were not their most fruitful with the bat, that is when they left DC so badly damaged by the ball that the visitors were unable to rally to tie the game. It prepared the ground for KKR’s decisive triumph in the match.
Powerplay: Plenty of runs and wickets
RR: 11.17, 4s/6s: 7/4, DC: 67/3
With three boundaries in the first over, Prithvi Shaw gave the visitors a flying start, but KKR quickly retaliated by taking a number of wickets. Vaibhav Arora cleaned up Shai Hope, Jake Fraser-McGurk was caught at deep square leg, and Shaw was caught edging the ball going down the leg. However, Fraser-McGurk and Porel’s breezy innings did contribute to the scoring rate.
Chakravarthy’s triple strike denies DC in the middle overs
DC: 45/5 (RR: 5.00, 5/0 for 4s and 6s)
As soon as the field limits were released, Harshit Rana struck off the fourth ball and KKR proceeded to collect up wickets. Pant made an attempt to keep DC steady during the middle overs, but their attempts to attack were ineffective. Chakravarthy undid Pant and Tristan Stubbs, while Sunil Narine ended Axar Patel’s difficult stay. In the 13th over, DC was obliged to substitute their Impact Substitute, Kumar Kushagra, but that did not yield the expected outcome either, as they were also taken off guard by Chakravarthy. DC became defensive as wickets started to fall often.
Death over: Kuldeep perseveres until the very end.
(RR: 8.20, 4s/6s: 4/1) DC: 41/1
Batting at number nine, Kuldeep Yadav persevered till the very end, putting on a 29-run partnership in twenty-four balls with Rasikh Salakm to claim the ninth wicket. He even hit Mitchell Starc for a six on the way. The Australian pacer in the ongoing IPL continued to have a poor run as the other bowlers enjoyed themselves. Kuldeep hauled away the next delivery for another boundary as the left-armer lost his line and went for a four with a wide down the leg side. Important runs were added to DC’s total, helping them reach a decent score even if it didn’t threaten to derail KKR’s momentum.
Knight Riders of Kolkata
Powerplay: Attacking the bowlers with salt
KKR: 79/0 (RR: 13.17, 10/4) for 4s and 6s
In the run chase, Phil Salt wasted no time in taking the lead and hammering Lizaad Williams for 23 runs, the highest first over of the season. In the first over, Williams’ no-ball helped, and in the second over, a dropped catch helped even more. Salt kept up the slam-bang strategy that has helped him win a lot of games lately and hogged most of the strike. A couple brief deliveries put Narine to the test, but he handled them well. In just 26 balls, the partnership’s half-century was reached. Salt reached his half-century in just 23 deliveries when he hit Khaleel Ahmed for a six down the ground in the final over of the powerplay.
DC strikes in the middle overs but is unable to gain momentum.
RR: 6.88, 4s/6s: 6/1, KKR: 62/3
DC had success after bringing their potent spin combo of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav into play after going through the powerplay without using them. With the first ball of the seventh over, Axar got a wicket, catching Narine at deep mid wicket. He dismissed Salt with an arm delivery in his subsequent over, which the batter tried to cut. After being moved up to No. 3, Rinku Singh was unable to have much of an effect either. He top-edged a pull to third man and was removed for a run-a-ball 11 in the eleventh over. But from then on, the chase was in the authority of Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer.
Death overs: A brief summary
RR: 6.88, 4s/6s: 6/1, KKR: 62/3
Shreyas and Venkatesh completed the formalities in nine balls, with the latter hitting the final delivery of Salam for a six. With 13 runs still needed to surpass the target, they did so with no difficulty.
Brief Scores: Delhi Capitals lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 157/3 in 16.3 overs (Phil Salt 68, Shreyas Iyer 33, Axar Patel 2-25) by 7 wickets after scoring 153/9 in 20 overs (Kuldeep Yadav 35*, Rishabh Pant 27; Varun Chakravarthy 3-16, Harshit Rana 2-28).
