Xtra Time Web Desk: The match was in Vishakhapatnam. Kolkata Knight Riders posted 272 runs against Delhi Capitals on that ground. In reply, Delhi’s innings ended at 166 runs. Upon that 106 run victory, the owner of KKR, Shahrukh Khan, was seen sitting in the stands. He was born in Delhi. On the other hand, seeing Delhi’s loss, Sourav Ganguly, Kolkata’s native, had a grim expression.
The decision to bat was made by the Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain Shreyas Iyer, who won the toss. Delhi’s captain Rishabh Pant also expressed that he would have batted if he had won the toss. The reason they wanted to bat became clear after watching Kolkata’s innings. Sunil Narine started hitting sixes from the beginning. He was caught by the fielder on the boundary off Pant’s bowling twice. But Pant failed to catch him both times. Narine returned to form with 85 runs off 39 balls. He hit seven fours and seven sixes, meaning he scored 70 runs just from boundaries. At one point, it seemed like this IPL’s first century would come from his bat. However, Narine was caught out by Pant off Mitchell Marsh’s delivery.
To build the innings, Narine was partnered with Angkrish Raghuvanshi. He was retained in the team from the last match. However, in that match, Kolkata had named him as an impact player despite being an 18-year-old young talent. On Wednesday, he was in the playing eleven for the first time. He came to bat at number three and scored 54 runs. Delhi’s lad, Raghuvanshi. started Kolkata’s innings. On Wednesday, he contributed almost half-century against Delhi Capitals. After that innings, Raghuvanshi said, “I just wanted to see off the ball when I came to bat. So, I didn’t do anything else. I have practiced a lot, and I got the result.”
After Narine and Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell played a game with Delhi’s bowlers. He had been crowned as the Caribbean all-rounder while playing for Delhi in the IPL. Later, he joined Kolkata Knight Riders. He scored 41 runs off 19 balls against his old team. Rinku Singh scored 26 runs off 8 balls. Their partnership helped Kolkata to post 272 runs. Kolkata’s batsmen hit a total of 18 sixes against Delhi on Wednesday.
Delhi suffered due to the absence of their spinner. Kuldeep Yadav was injured and didn’t play in this match. Except for Axar Patel, there was no spinner in Delhi’s team. Pacers couldn’t put pressure the way they wanted. Pant didn’t give more than one over to Axar. In that over, Axar conceded 18 runs. Among the pacers, Anrich Nortje took the most runs. He took three wickets in four overs by conceding 59 runs. Kashmir’s pacer, Rasikh Salam, gave away 47 runs in three overs. Left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed took one wicket, giving 43 runs in four overs. Despite the runs given by all the pacers, Pant couldn’t control the run rate. Many believe that if Kuldeep were there, the scenario could be different.
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Batsmen came and went one after another from Delhi. Prithvi Shaw got out at the beginning. After him, one batter after another came, played big shots, and got out. It never felt like Delhi could win. Mitchell Starc took wickets. He took two wickets. Harshit Rana couldn’t play due to injury. Yet, there was no problem for Kolkata Knight Riders. Pace bowler Vaibhav Arrora took three wickets in four overs by conceding 27 runs.
Varun Chakravarthy also took three wickets. In four overs, he gave 33 runs. Varun and Narine understood the urgency of having spinners in the team. They together took four wickets in eight overs, conceding 62 runs. They broke Delhi’s middle-order. Russell also took one wicket.
Even though the rest of Delhi’s batters couldn’t score, Pant scored 55 runs off 25 balls. He scored a half-century in the previous match as well. Pant scored half-centuries in consecutive matches. Pant and Tristian Stubs scored. Stubs scored 54 runs off 32 balls. They were hopeful of a victory for Delhi during their partnership. However, that was very temporary.