Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan starred with the bat as Delhi Capitals defeated Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by seven wickets in an Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter here at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday.
Shaw and Dhawan played knocks of 82 and 46 respectively as Delhi Capitals registered a win with 21 balls to spare. With this win, Delhi has moved to the second spot in the points table with 10 points. Chasing 155, Delhi Capitals got off to a flying start as Prithvi Shaw smashed six boundaries in the very first over bowled by Shivam Mavi. Shaw along with Dhawan continued the carnage and Delhi’s score read 67/0 after the end of the sixth over.
Dhawan and Shaw continued with their momentum and KKR had no answers on how to stop both the batters. With just 23 runs needed for the win, KKR finally managed to get a breakthrough as Pat Cummins had Dhawan (46) adjudged leg-before wicket, ending the first-wicket partnership of 132 runs.
Cummins also removed Shaw (82) and Rishabh Pant (16) in the 16th over, but in the end, Delhi Capitals registered an easy victory to move to second place in the points table.
Earlier, Axar Patel and Lalit Yadav scalped two wickets each as Delhi Capitals restricted KKR to a score of 154/6 in the allotted 20 overs. For KKR, Shubman Gill got going with the bat as he played a knock of 43 runs. Andre Russell and Pat Cummins also played useful knocks of 45 and 11 respectively but KKR had to settle with a below-par score.
Asked to bat first, KKR did not get off to an ideal start as the side lost its opener Nitish Rana (15) in the fourth over. Patel had the left-handed batsman stumped and this brought Rahul Tripathi to the middle. Tripathi and Gill took KKR’s score to 45/1 after the end of the sixth over. Tripathi and Gill stitched together a 44-run partnership for the second wicket, but as soon as KKR started to dominate, Delhi Capitals stormed right back as Marcus Stoinis dismissed Tripathi (19). Skipper Eoin Morgan (0) and Sunil Narine (0) disappointed with the bat and as a result, KKR was reduced to 74/4 in the 11th over.
KKR’s innings fell further into a slump in the 13th over as the set batsman Gill (43) handed a simple catch to Steve Smith at wide long-on off the bowling of Avesh Khan, reducing the side to 82/5. Dinesh Karthik next joined Andre Russell in the middle and the duo put on 27 runs for the sixth wicket. However, in trying to increase the tempo of run-scoring, Karthik (14) ended up losing his wicket to Patel in the 17th over. In the final two overs, Russell and Cummins managed to add 31 more runs to the total, and as a result, KKR posted a score of more than the 150-run mark.
Brief scores: KKR 154/6 (Shubman Gill 43, Andre Russell 45*, Lalit Yadav 2-13) vs Delhi Capitals 156/3 (Prithvi Shaw 82, Shikhar Dhawan 46, Pat Cummins 3-24).
