Kuldeep Yadav registered yet another four-wicket haul against his former franchise Kolkata Knight Riders as Delhi Capitals edged past Shreyas Iyer’s men in a low-scoring thriller.
KKR lost their fifth match in a row as yet another dismal batting performance led to their downfall against DC in Mumbai. Shreyas Iyer and his men were asked to bat after the Capitals’ skipper Rishabh Pant won the toss and opted to field.
Kolkata continued chopping and changing their lineup as they brought in Aaron Finch, Baba Indrajith and Harshit Rana in place of Sam Billings, Shivam Mavi and Varun Chakravarthy. The lack of good opening stands had been one of their major issues in the last four losses, and that continued once again as both openers went back to the dugout with just 22 runs on the board.
Their miseries increased further as they lost the wickets of debutant Baba Indrajith and Sunil Narine in quick succession. It was Kuldeep who dismissed the two batters in back-to-back deliveries. KKR were staring down the barrel with the score reading 35/4 in the eighth over, and that was when Shreyas and Nitish Rana tried to rescue them.
They were going well and had put on a strong 48-run stand. However, Kuldeep struck just as both batters were looking to accelerate. He got the wickets of Iyer and Andre Russell in the same over and crushed KKR’s chances of making a comeback into the contest completely. As a result, the wrist-spinner finished with brilliant figures of 4/14 to follow up his figures of 4/35 in the reverse fixture against KKR.
Rana tried his best as he played an excellent knock of 57 off just 34 deliveries. But his efforts could only get KKR to a score of 146/9, with not much support from the other end.
It looked like an easy chase for Delhi but the KKR bowlers put on a strong fight. Umesh Yadav got rid of Prithvi Shaw for a golden duck right on the first ball of the innings, and debutant Rana sent Mitchell Marsh back to the dugout in the second over. The Capitals got reduced to 17/2, but David Warner and Lalit Yadav resurrected their innings with an excellent 65-run stand.
They were cruising towards the total, and that’s when KKR made a comeback into the match again. They got rid of Warner, Lalit and Pant in consecutive overs and thus reduced them to 84/5. However, their lower-order came good again. Axar Patel batted very well, contributing a 17-ball 24 and taking Delhi closer towards the total. He got run-out in the 15th over and made things tense for the Capitals.
But Rovman Powell and Shardul Thakur maintained their composure and took the Capitals home. While Thakur played the second fiddle, remaining unbeaten on eight off 14 deliveries, Powell made the real difference as he remained unbeaten on 33 off just 16 deliveries.
Their efforts helped Delhi in reaching their target with an over and four wickets to spare. Kuldeep was deservedly adjudged the Player of the Match for his brilliant bowling effort. He was the Player of the Match against KKR in the reverse fixture as well.
Brief scores
Delhi Capitals 150/6 in 19 overs (Warner 42, Powell 33*; Yadav 3/24) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 146/9 in 20 overs (Rana 57, Iyer 42; Yadav 4/14) by four wickets
