A collective effort from the bowlers helped DC restrict KKR to just 154/6, and that was despite a blitz from Andre Russell at the death. Chasing under eight runs an over, Prithvi Shaw completely decimated the KKR attack as he smashed his way to 82 and helped Delhi romp home with 21 balls to spare.
Delhi Capitals shrugged off their one-run loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore in style as they recorded a thumping seven-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders. It was a brutal knock by Prithvi Shaw that completely killed the run-chase, and the KKR bowlers had no answers to the Shaw carnage.
After winning the toss, Rishabh Pant asked KKR to bat first. It wasn’t a great start for KKR as they got off to a sedate start. They scored just 32 runs in the first five overs and had lost Nitish Rana, who was stumped off by Axar Patel in the fourth over. Only in the last over did Shubman Gill break the shackles with a boundaries as KKR got to 45/1 at the end of the six-over mark.
After the powerplay, the KKR batters just couldn’t get going and just didn’t find the fence. Gill struck Axar for a six in the 8th over, but apart from that, no single four or a six KKR scored till the end of the 14th over.
And in this phase, they lost four wickets as well. Marcus Stoinis had Rahul Tripathi holing out at deep cover before Lalit Yadav struck twice in the space of three balls to leave KKR in trouble. Skipper Eoin Morgan was caught at long-on before Sunil Narine was knocked over, both in the 11th over to leave KKR 75/4. Gill, who had got a decent start, had slowed down, and he holed out in the 13th over to give Avesh Khan his first wicket.
KKR were reeling at 82/5 in 13 overs, and Russell was batting on three off eight balls. It was only in the 15th over that Dinesh Karthik broke the boundary jinx with a slog-sweep off Patel. Russell then started his blitz and got a boundary almost every over. The Jamaican all-rounder blazed his way to an unbeaten 45 off 27 balls (two fours and four sixes) as he helped KKR score 42 runs off the last three overs, propelling the two-time champions to 154/6.
However, that was never going to be enough as Prithvi Shaw almost killed the run-chase in the first five overs. The swashbuckling 21-year-old opener smashed Shivam Mavi for six fours in the very first over of the innings. Mavi started off the over with a wide and his 2018 Under-19 World Cup skipper belted him all over the Motera as Shaw became only the second batsman after Ajinkya Rahane to hit six fours in an IPL game.
That just set the tone for blistering innings from Shaw. He continued in a similar fashion, and every bowler that came into the attack travelled the distance. It was only the introduction of Pat Cummins that saw the carnage stop for a bit as the premier Aussie fast bowler conceded just one run in the 6th over as he bowled five deliveries to Dhawan.
Shaw blazed his way to 48 off 16 balls at the end of the powerplay, which took Delhi to the highest powerplay score by any team this season – 67/0. Dhawan wasn’t at his fluent best as he nudged around to reach 17 off 20 but Shaw’s brilliance was such that his sluggish innings wasn’t even noticed.
Shaw continued on his merry way and reached his half-century off just 18 balls. He did slow down a touch, but the boundaries continued to flow at regular intervals. The Mumbai-born batsman decimated the KKR bowling attack. Dhawan was dismissed by Cummins in the 14th over, and the 132-run opening stand was broken. Pant came in at No. 3 and struck a four and a six off Prasidh Krishna.
However, both Shaw and Pant were dismissed in the same over as Cummins picked up a couple more to finish with 3/24. Shaw was out for a fine 82 while Pant’s 8-ball 16 cameo came to an end. Stoinis struck a boundary to finish things off in style as Delhi romped home and recorded their fifth win of the season.
They now move to the second spot on the points table (10 points) and have nudged ahead of RCB due to a better net run rate.
Brief Scores
Kolkata Knight Riders 154/6 (Russell 45*, Gill 43, Lalit 2/13, Axar 2/32) lost to Delhi Capitals 156/3 (Shaw 82, Dhawan 46, Cummins 3/24) by seven wickets
