IPL2021: KKR beat Delhi Capitals by 3 wickets
Kolkata is rising like a phoenix after an awful leg in India, now that they've beaten a top placed team, it remains to be seen how long this juggernaut continues.
By Vadiraj Kanakagiri
This game included all sorts of weirdness to it. Twenty-run overs to maiden overs to no sixes in the whole capitals innings, that too at Sharjah, this game had it all.
Before the game, it was predicted that this is gonna be the battle of fearlessness. But for Delhi capitals a big chunk of that attitude was sitting out of the game. Prithivi Shaw, who embodies fearless approach to the fullest, was out of the match with an injury. Steve Smith came in for Shaw and Delhi were back to four oversees players again. After just one poor outing, Prasidh Krishna was dropped by Morgan and Tim Southee replaced the injured Dre Russ.
On a slow low Sharjah pitch, Morgan opted to bowl first. Steve Smith opened with Dhawan in the place of Shaw, but was far off in exerting the kind of pressure Shaw used to, on the opposition, with his aggressive approach. This put pressure of Dhawan to go for the big shot and he perished in doing so. Shreyas Iyer was undone by a beautifully flighted off spinner from Narine, which went through the defences of Iyer and castled the stumps. Rishab pant and Steve Smith rebuild the innings, but couldn't really get the boundaries on regular intervals on a tough Sharjah wicket.
The pitch was such, also credit to some tight bowling, even the hard hitting pant couldn't clear the ropes. Morgan introduced Venkatesh Iyer into the attack hoping to get a couple of overs out of him, and Iyer did more than what his skipper expected from him. He bowled some great lengths to which couldn't get under. He scalped Hetmyer and Axar Patel and made Delhi scratch their heads. The lower order didn't really bother KKR too much as they were cleaned up quite easily. Pant trudged along for 39 off 36 balls, with only 3 fours and no sixes, and Delhi were folded for a paltry 127.
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Kolkata tried to start off in similar swashbuckling manner that they had in previous three games, but the pitch didn't allow them to get away that easy. Venkatesh Iyer had put out his performance for the match with bowl, when he picked two wickets and halted the run flow. He got out cheaply for 14 trying one shot too many. The in form, oozing with confidence, Rahul Tripathi came in at three and whacked the very first ball he faced into the deep mid wicket stands. But on a pitch that needed some slow sensible batting, he couldn't hold his horses for long and caught at mid off playing an uppish drive. Shubam gill played some splendid strokes and showed his class.
Pant brought back Ashwin into the attack against Morgan to have his say with the ball. In the first innings when Ashwin got out, Southee and Morgan had exchanged few words with Ashwin about something and Dinesh Karthik had to clear out things in the middle. Ashwin didn't waste much time before he induced an edge of Morgan towards slip and brought out a massive celebration right in front of Morgan, giving him a send off.
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The fact that Rabada came on to bowl in the 11th over of the game, tells you about the tackiness of the wicket. In his very first over, Rabada troubled Gill all through the over and didn't let him get a run for five deliveries. He bounced Gill out on the sixth and completed a wicket maiden. Just as the game was at balance, Nitish Rana stealed 20 runs off his Delhi teammate Lalit Yadav's over. Then came Avesh Khan and picked up Dinesh Karthik and brought the life back into the game. The ebb and flow nature of the game continued and Sunil Narine smashed Rabada all over the park for a 21 run over and sucked the life out of the hopes of Delhi win.
The star of the season with the ball for Delhi, Anrich Nortje came on in 17th, bowling only his second, bounced out Narine, letting his South African teammate know how it's done. Avesh picked an another in the next over but it was all too late as Kolkata sneaked past with three wickets left in the shed.
Kolkata is rising like a phoenix after an awful leg in India, now that they've beaten a top placed team, it remains to be seen how long this juggernaut continues.
Brief Scores: Delhi Capitals 127/9 in 20 overs (Steven Smith 39, Rishabh Pant 39; Lockie Ferguson 2-10) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 130/7 in 18.2 overs (Nitish Rana 36*; Avesh Khan 3-13) by 3 wickets
