Delhi Capitals ended their barren IPL 2023 campaign, following a nervy four wicket victory against the Kolkata Knight Riders in Delhi on Thursday.
Ishant Sharma, 34, playing his first IPL match in more than two years, showed he still hasn't lost his touch, as he bowled a superb spell with the new ball.
Ishant, who went unsold last season and played just four games in total in the previous two tournaments -- IPL 2020 and IPL 2021 -- upstaged all his younger colleagues with impressive figures of 2/19 in four overs and was rightly named man of the match.
Ishant was instrumental in keeping KKR in check with a fine first spell of 1/14 in three overs inside the Powerplay. Anrich Nortje and Mukesh Kumar picked up one wicket each to leave KKR reeling on 35/3 in six overs.
The Delhi pace trio showed immaculate control with the new ball as they sent down 18 dot balls, while conceding just six boundaries in the Powerplay.
That set the stage perfectly for the spin duo of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav to further attack the KKR batting line-up in the middle overs on a pitch which provided quite a bit of assistance to both the spinners and fast bowlers.
KKR's batters tried hard to break free in the middle overs, but in vain as they kept throwing their wickets away.
Kuldeep and Axar claimed two wickets apiece, while conceding a total of 28 runs in their six overs combined. 21 of their 36 deliveries bowled were dot balls.
The 67 dot balls in KKR's innings in the second most in IPL 2023 and played a big part in Kolkata finishing with just 127. If not for Andre Russell's 38 not out from 31 balls, KKR would not have got past the 100-run mark.
Chasing a lowly target, Delhi Capitals once again took the game away from KKR in the Powerplay. Skipper David Warner came out all guns blazing to give Delhi the momentum in the early overs.
Warner, who has been picked in the Australia side for the World Test Championship final and the first two Ashes Tests, hit six boundaries in the first three overs to give Delhi a flying start.
Prithvi Shaw continued his horror show with the bat as he fell for 13, but Warner proved to be unstoppable. He hammered Sunil Narine for four fours in his second over.
Delhi away to 61/1 in the Powerplay with Warner making most of the fielding restrictions, slamming 45 from 25 balls.
KKR's spinners chipped away at the wickets in the middle overs and when Warner fell for 57 from 41 balls, Delhi looked in some trouble.
KKR will rue a big moment in the latter stages when debutant Bangladesh wicket-keeper Litton Das missed an easy stumping to give Lalit Yadav a lifeline off Varun Chakravarthy. The batter was miles down the wicket, but Litton was unable to gather the ball cleanly in the 18th over.
A wicket at that stage would have exposed the DC tailenders on a pitch getting increasingly difficult for batting, but luck was firmly on Delhi's side as Axar Patel swung and missed a few times before his (19 not out) carried the hosts to a narrow four-wicket with four balls to spare.
If not for the quickfire start courtesy of Warner, Delhi would have struggled to get the runs in the middle overs.
The KKR's spin trio of Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Rana and Anukul Roy bowled a total of 12 overs in which they picked up six wickets for 52, including 37 dot balls.
