Kolkata Knight Riders became the second team to win three consecutive matches at the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL), courtesy of a 106-run win over Delhi Capitals on Wednesday (3 April), at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. Scoring a gigantic 272/7 after opting to bat first, the Knight Riders bowled Delhi out for a paltry total of 166.
While the target of 273 runs was always going to a too daunting, Delhi had a decent first ten deliveries, where they accumulated 21 runs. But on the 11th delivery, Prithvi Shaw lost his wicket to Vaibhav Arora, who was playing his first match of the season.
Mitchell Marsh could not open his account as he departed for a duck in the third over, becoming IPL’s most expensive player, Mitchell Starc’s maiden victim in his KKR tenure.
The revolving doors did not come to a stoppage anytime soon as two more wickets fell in the next couple of overs – Abishek Porel joining Marsh as the match’s second player to get out on a duck, before Starc got his second wicket, dismissing another fellow Aussie in David Warner.
Reeling at 40/4 after five overs, it seemed the margin of defeat would be embarrassing for the Capitals, except their skipper Rishabh Pant and Tristan Stubbs chose not to throw their towels in the face of adversity.
The pair were involved in a 93-run fifth-wicket stand, which saw both of them scoring half-centuries. The highlight was the 11th over of the innings, where Shreyas Iyer had to turn to his sur-namesake, Venkatesh Iyer, after Harshit Rana reportedly sustained an injury. Having not bowled in a while, Venkatesh was dispatched to every corner of the relatively small stadium, conceding 28 runs.
But that was all about Delhi’s joys as the very next over saw Varun Chakaravarthy picking up two wickets – first Pant, then Axar Patel on a golden duck. The leg-spinner completed a three-fer when he got the wicket of Stubbs in his last over, finishing with impressive figures of 4-0-33-3.
All-rounder Sumit Kumar, who had replaced the injured Mukesh Kumar, could not justify his selection yet again as he could merely add 3 runs to the team’s cause before losing his wicket to Sunil Narine, while Rasikh Salam could not make amends for conceding 47 runs with the ball, scoring only a solitary run with the bat.
Having been among wickets in the first two matches of the season, Andre Russell extended the streak to three as he scalped Delhi’s last wicket, dismissing Anrich Nortje in the 18th over.
Four-Pronged Attack Led by Sunil Narine Propelled KKR to 272
Earlier, Sunil Narine (85), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (54), Andre Russell (41) and Rinku Singh (26) produced blistering fireworks in carrying Kolkata Knight Riders to a gigantic 272/2, which is also the second-highest total in IPL's history.
On a placid pitch, KKR produced two hours of sensational carnage by hitting 22 fours and 18 sixes, with DC bowlers minus Kuldeep Yadav and Mukesh Kumar bearing the brunt of ruthless big-hitting. Narine was quick in creating room and lofting with ease to collect runs for fun in what is now his highest T20 score ever.
Young Raghuvanshi, a member of India’s 2022 U19 World Cup winning campaign, impressed with his wrist work and the ability take on DC’s bowlers by mixing innovation with copybook strokeplay to get his maiden IPL fifty. Russell and Rinku brought out their usual fireworks at the end to add more intensity to KKR’s batting carnage in Visakhapatnam.
Electing to bat first, KKR got going with Phil Salt taking two fours off Ishant Sharma in the second over. Narine got into the act by slashing Khaleel Ahmed through the off-side for a boundary, before Salt joined in with two driven fours to take 15 runs off the third over.
Boundaries continued to flow for Narine as he smacked two sixes off Ishant – a length ball was lofted over mid-off and a short delivery pulled over deep square leg. He then guided the pacer through backward point for a boundary, carved drive over long-off for six and ended the over with a thick edge going for four to bring up KKR’s fifty at the end of fourth over.
Anrich Nortje made an immediate impact when Salt was caught at mid-off in the fifth over, but young Raghuvanshi pulled and punched off him to get two quick boundaries. Narine, who was lucky to survive on 24 when Rishabh Pant failed to take a review on a faint edge, hit Rasikh Salam for three fours and a six to complete a 21-ball fifty as KKR ended power-play at 88/1, going past 85/0 they made against RCB last week.
Post power-play, there was no respite for DC as Narine and Raghuvanshi continued to take runs aplenty against the bowlers. Narine nonchalantly hammered Axar Patel for two sixes, while Raghuvanshi was impressive in using wrists and fast bat-swing to smash boundaries, with a reverse-hit off Rasikh going over third man for six being the standout.
Narine moved towards his highest T20 score ever with a flat-batted six over long-off against Nortje, also bringing up his 100-run stand with Raghuvanshi. But Mitchell Marsh took him out with a bouncer in the 13th over, which Narine looked to pull, but gave a faint nick behind to Pant, falling after making 85 off just 39 balls.
Raghuvanshi would get his maiden IPL fifty off just 25 balls, but fell for 54 two balls later when he tried to ramp off Nortje and was caught at deep third man. Russell feasted on hit-me deliveries from Nortje and Salam to hit two fours and as many sixes before the second time-out.
Post interval, Russell smashed two sixes and a four, while captain Shreyas Iyer hammered two maximums, before getting a top-edge on a short ball from Khaleel to mid-on. Things went from bad to worse for DC as over-rate penalty was imposed for last two overs, allowing them to have only four fielders outside the 30-yard circle.
Rinku had some fun by using his strong bottom hand to smash Nortje for three sixes and a four, before toe-ending a slog to mid-on. Ishant produced a magical moment by having Russell floored with a menacing 144kmph inswinging yorker and had Ramandeep Singh caught at extra cover to keep KKR short of breaking SRH’s record of 277.
(With inputs from IANS)
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