There may be nonetheless life in Kolkata Knight Riders’ IPL title defence. With simply three wins in 9 matches earlier than Tuesday, KKR got here into this fixture in opposition to Delhi Capitals on the Arun Jaitley Stadium desperately needing to recover from the road.
The defending champion did simply that by clinching a 14-run win that consigned the Capitals to its third defeat in 4 matches within the nationwide capital. After racking up 204 for 9, KKR restricted the host to 190 for 9 with Sunil Narine working his magic.
The pendulum swung a number of occasions in the course of the Capitals’ chase. KKR had the ascendancy after putting thrice throughout the first seven overs, notably with Ok.L. Rahul’s run-out from a direct hit. Together with Axar Patel, although, Faf du Plessis stitched collectively a 76-run stand and saved his group within the fray.
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Simply when DC gave the impression to be nudging forward – it wanted 75 runs from the ultimate seven overs — the guile and game-sense of Narine got here to the fore. Having been belted for a six by Axar off the primary ball of the 14th over, he pulled his size again ever so barely and drew the left-hander into skewing a lofted shot to Harshit Rana at cowl. The thriller spinner castled Tristan Stubbs’ stumps 4 balls later earlier than eliminating du Plessis in his subsequent over. He completed with figures of 4-0-29-3.
On the midway stage, KKR’s batters should have had combined emotions about their effort. Whereas a rollicking begin allowed the lads in purple and gold to zoom to 79 for one on the finish of the PowerPlay, there have been many extra runs they might have scored within the again finish to take the sport away from DC’s attain. Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s 44 was the best rating, with a lot of the different batters frittering away quickfire begins.
DC’s bowlers did their bit. Spinners Axar and Vipraj Nigam claimed two scalps every whereas Mitchell Starc got here away with three wickets. Within the twentieth over, Starc dismissed Rovman Powell and Anukul Roy, due to a screamer by Dushmantha Chameera at deep backward sq. leg, off consecutive balls. Andre Russell was then run out to make it a hat-trick of wickets for DC. It wasn’t sufficient on the night time for the house group although.