Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) outplayed Delhi Capitals (DC) by seven wickets and 21 balls remaining in the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Monday.
KKR stayed in the second spot with 12 points from nine matches and DC held on to sixth with 10 points from 11 games in the points table.
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Prithvi Shaw started the game with three back-to-back boundaries off Mitchell Starc but in the very next over, the diminutive batter tickled a ball from Vaibhav Arora down the leg side.
Jake Fraser-McGurk hit Starc for a four and a six, looking like his destructive best. The costliest IPL player ever, struck back to dismiss his compatriot as Venkatesh Iyer took a sharp catch at deep square leg.
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In the very next over, Vaibhav castled Shai Hope with a peach of a delivery to leave DC reeling. Skipper Rishabh Pant joined local Abishek Porel to take control of the proceedings. The duo counter-attacked and even managed to smash a few.
Harshit Rana clean bowled a falling Porel just after the powerplay to end their 31-run stand.
Pant, looking to play his trademark sweep-scoop off Varun Chakaravarthy, was dropped for 18 runs by Harshit at short third-man. It was not too costly though for KKR as Varun returned to dismiss Pant with skipper Shreyas Iyer making no mistake as his counterpart walked back for 27.
Tristan Stubbs followed soon as he edged one behind to Philip Salt with Varun getting his second wicket. DC had lost their sixth even before reaching 100.
Axar Patel was bamboozled by Sunil Narine as he did not read the carrom ball. Kumar Kushagra was the eighth wicket to fall as he failed to read the ball completely and tickled it behind to Salt as Varun claimed his third.
Kuldeep Yadav was not ready to give in that easily. With luck on his side, the tail-ender stitched a crucial 29-run stand with Rasikh Salam Dar, until Harshit dismissed the latter. Kuldeep’s 26-ball 35, with five fours and one six, helped DC post a respectable 153/9 from their 20 overs.
Salt and Narine started the chase in their usual attacking fashion.
Lizaad Williams conceded 23 runs in the first over, the sixth-most in IPL history, and then dropped Salt off Khaleel Ahmed’s first ball. Having been dropped on 15, Salt capitalised on his lucky break to smash his way his fifty in just 26 deliveries.
Rasikh Salam and Khaleel went for 15 and 18 runs respectively as KKR blasted their way to 79 at the end of the powerplay.
On the first ball of the seventh over, Narine, who had been watching from the other end, fell to Axar in the deep by Fraser-McGurk. Axar struck again in his next over to remove Salt for a well-played 68, including seven fours and five sixes.
Rinku Singh had been promoted to number three as Shreyas walked out to join him as KKR reached the 100-run mark at the end of the ninth over.
Rinku’s stay was not long though as his run-a-ball 11 ended when he tried to hoick a short delivery from Williams but was caught at third man by Kuldeep.
Shreyas and Venkatesh attacked the DC spinners as the pair calmed things in the middle after the quick fall of wickets. The two Iyers fired KKR to a comfortable win with a 57-run partnership. Shreyas was not out on 33 Venkatesh stayed unbeaten on 26 to help their side cross the line with 21 balls to spare.
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