Highlight
On Tuesday, KKR beat DC by a margin of three wickets.
Lockie Ferguson picked up two scalps in the process.
With two wickets each, Sunil Narine and Venkatesh Iyer finished with 4-2.
In the upcoming IPL 2021, Kolkata Knight Riders will face Delhi Capitals, and the winner will advance to the play-off round.
Kolkata Knight Riders beat Delhi Capitals by three wickets on Tuesday in a low-scoring IPL match thanks in part to Nitish Rana’s cool under pressure in the chase. Delhi Capitals were restricted to 127-9 by the KKR bowlers, who took full advantage of the slow Sharjah track. When inexperienced Lalit Yadav was bowled to in the 14th over, T20 specialist Rana (36 not out) and veteran Sunil Narine (21 off 10 balls) went after him, the game swung in favor of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
If DC loses, it will serve as a good wake-up call. They are still second in the table with 16 points, while KKR is still fourth with 10.
KKR was struggling at 76 for 4 in the 13th over on a relaid Sharjah track, making it difficult for DC to score runs. In the meantime, Ravichandran Ashwin’s quota had been finished by Rishabh Pant (1/24 in 4 overs) and he was forced to use Lalit Yadav’s quick off-breaks. Rana swung the long handle and hit two sixes for huge scores of 20.
There were late jitters but Rana finished the match in style with a slashed boundary off Anrich Nortje’s 16th over. Narine launched into Rabada and scored 21 runs to put Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in control.
Eoin Morgan had decided to bat first because the ball was stopping before it reached the bat, according to the KKR bowlers. There were only two Delhi Capitals players to reach the 30-run mark: Steve Smith and skipper Rishabh Pant. Throughout the entire game, not a single six-spot was hit.
Shikhar Dhawan (24), the Capitals’ opener, smashed five boundaries in quick succession while turning many balls into half volleys before being pouched by Venkatesh at Lockie Ferguson’s point.
Despite being 39 for one after the Powerplay, DC soon became 40 for two after Sunil Narine (2/18) dismissed Shreyas Iyer (1) for a duck in the seventh over. It didn’t take long for Smith to be joined by Pant, and the two of them had a hard time scoring because the ball wasn’t coming onto the bat quickly enough.
Aside from Narine (2/18), Varun Chakravarthy (0/24) was reliable. Delhi scored 12 off Chakravarthy’s 10th over as Smith attempted a gear shift and smashed consecutive fours. Following that, the Australian slog-swept Narine and looked like he was having the time of his life when Ferguson castled Smith and dropped Delhi to 77/3.
As Delhi neared 92/6, Kolkata took three quick wickets, including Shimron Hetmyer (4), Lalit Yadav (0), who was caught in front by Narine, and Axar Patel (0).
Hardik Pandya will be on pins and needles for the foreseeable future after Venkatesh (2/29) bowled exceptionally well in the back-10, mixing it up nicely at nearly 130 kmph and keeping him on edge.
Pant overtook Virender Sehwag as the leading run-scorer for the Delhi Capitals.
