An expected run-fest turned out to be one of the most one-sided games of this IPL. The Kolkata Knight Riders wouldn’t mind that though as they were on the winning side, thrashing the Delhi Capitals by seven wickets at Eden Gardens on Monday to cement their place at No. 2 on the table.
Mitchell Starc, returning to the XI, bled runs once again. However, he took the prized scalp of the explosive Jake Fraser-McGurk, while the other KKR bowlers, led by spinner Varun Chakravarthy (3/16), put in a much better show to limit the Capitals to 153/9 after the visitors won the toss and elected to bat first.
The cheers of the near-capacity crowd at the Eden grew louder with the fall of every Capitals wicket, as the presence of Sourav Ganguly in the Delhi dugout — he is their director of cricket — didn’t seem to be eating into the support for the Knight Riders. Besides, despite Sourav’s presence, the Capitals read the conditions wrong as the little bit of dew that was there made batting easier during the second innings.
If their capitulation with the bat wasn’t enough, the Capitals then made matters worse for themselves when they let off the in-form Phil Salt as South African pacer Lizaad Williams shelled a relatively easy skier near the mid-on region off left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed’s bowling. Salt was on 15 then.
Following that reprieve, Salt (68 off 33 balls) simply blasted the Capitals attack to both sides of the ground and quickly brought the Knight Riders’ required run rate below six an over. By the time he perished off Axar Patel, the Knights had practically wrapped up the game before Venkatesh Iyer and captain Shreyas Iyer took them home with 21 balls to spare.
Earlier, Starc, after conceding three boundaries to Prithvi Shaw in the first over of the game, was hit for a six and a four in his next over as well by Fraser-McGurk. But in that very over, Starc picked up the young Australian as his attempted whack was neatly taken by Iyer at deep square-leg region.
Varun Chakravarthy (right) celebrates after one of his three wickets on Monday.
That wicket did pump the Knights up and soon after, pacer Vaibhav Arora (2/29), after dismissing Shaw, bowled a beauty to clean up Shai Hope with one that held its line.
The Knights’ ploy to make Arora (back in the XI in place of Angkrish Raghuvanshi) Starc’s new-ball partner did pay off.
Delhi Capitals players Rishabh Pant take shots during KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) Vs. DC (Delhi Capitals) IPL 2024 cricket match at Eden Gardens on Monday, April 29, 2024.
KKR’s spinners then ensured the good work done early on didn’t go to waste. Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine made optimum use of the slowness in the surface, where the ball also gripped a little.
Pant was dropped on 18 by Harshit at short third man, but Chakravarthy, in his very next over, got the Delhi captain to miscue one and perish before foxing Tristan Stubbs and Impact Player Kumar Kushagra. Narine, meanwhile, bowled Axar out.
