Kolkata Knight Riders rode on an exceptional spell from leg spinner Varun Chakravarthy who helped them restrict Delhi Capitals to 153 for 9 before the KKR batters put a clinical show to record a win at home.
The win on Monday, April 29, 2024, took KKR a step closer to the play-offs as they consolidated their position in the second spot in the IPL 2024 standings.
The best bowlers of the night...
Varun Chakravarthy
The 32 year old wove his magic and had DC in all sorts of trouble.
On a slow track that was gripping a bit, Chakravarthy came into the attack and ripped into DC's middle order, with three crucial wickets against his name.
At 80 for 4 after the 9th over, DC were already in a spot of bother, but Chakravarthy's introduction made the proceedings even more interesting for KKR supporters.
He nearly had Rishabh Pant off the very first ball of his spell, but the DC captain was put down by Harshit Rana. But he didn't have to wait long to strike again as he had his man off the very first ball of his second over.
Pant was lured in to go after the full toss, he miscued the attempted slog sweep and was easily caught at cover by Shreyas Iyer.
Pant is now Chakravarthy's bunny -- Pant has scored 31 runs off 30 balls and has been dismissed three times by the leggie. Also, his strike rate against the KKR spinner is just 103.3.
Chakravarthy struck again in his 3rd over when he had Tristan Stubbs caught behind for 4.
DC were reeling at 99 for 6, but the leggie wasn't done yet. He took his final wicket of the night when he had Impact Sub Kumar Kushagra caught behind for 1 -- an inside edge hitting the flap of his pads before Phil Salt completed the catch.
Apart from the three wickets, Chakravarthy made scoring very hard and eventually finished with 4-0-16-3! A spell worthy of a Player of the Match award.
Vaibhav Arora
KKR got off to a good start with the ball courtesy new ball bowler Vaibhav Arora.
Prithvi Shaw carted Mitchell Starc for three fours in the opening and Arora put the brakes on the DC opener before he could do any more damage.
Arora bowled a ball swinging into the right handed Shaw, who looked to glance the ball down to fine leg only to get a faint edge and be caught behind for 13 off 7. Arora has now dismissed Shaw twice in the IPL.
Arora bowled well to get the ball to swing both ways. He got his second wicket in the form of Shai Hope. A ball before his dismissal, the West Indian had got a lucky six with a hook shot.
Hope was expecting another short one but got a peach instead. Arora bowled a length ball angling into the right hander who looked to defend on the back foot. But the ball went just past his outside edge and knocked the off-stump.
Arora finished with 2 for 28. His spell had 15 dot balls, bowled at an economy of 17.25.
He is now the joint highest wicket taker (7 wickets in 5 innings with an average of 16.9) in the Powerplay overs along with Trent Boult and Khaleel Ahmed.
Axar Patel
Defending 154 DC bowlers had a tough task at hand. But trust Axar Patel to make a few inroads to keep his team in the game.
While Phil Salt was smoking the bowling at one end, Sunil Narine was happy to hit a boundary when the opportunity came. The KKR openers raced to 79 for no loss in the Powerplay. Axar struck just after when he had Narine (15 off 10) caught at mid wicket to end the opening stand.
He soon had Salt bowled for 68 to have KKR at 96 for 2 in the 9th over.
Axar was the most effective Delhi bowler on the evening and had 2 wickets for 25 runs to show for it.
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