Delhi Capitals finally got off the mark on the points table, after five losses, as they beat Kolkata Knight Riders in Match 28 of TATA IPL 2023 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
A collective bowling performance, where four bowlers picked up two wickets each, helped DC bowl KKR out for 127. David Warner then led from the front with the bat with 57 off 41 and Axar Patel played a crucial knock of 19* off 22 to hold his nerve and take DC past the finish line after KKR had fought back hard to take the match down the wire.
Chasing 128, David Warner and Prithvi Shaw set the tone early as the pair hit six fours in the first three overs. The duo hit three fours in the second over from Kulwant Khejroliya and then Warner hit two off Russell. Warner was the attacker in chief with five fours. KKR then introduced spin early and the move worked as Narine gave away just three from his first over and then Varun Chakravarthy struck the first blow by having Shaw drag one onto the stumps on 13(11).
Warner then went after Narine in the last over of the Powerplay, cracking four fours in the over to take 17 runs off it as DC reached 61/1 at the end of the Powerplay. KKR then fought back and picked up two quick wickets to peg DC back. Rana removed Mitchell Marsh for 2 and then Anukul Roy had Phil Salt caught and bowled as things slowed down. DC reached 73/3 at the halfway mark. Warner and Pandey then released the pressure hitting a couple of fours off Anukul as Warner brought up his fifty off 33 balls.
With 35 needed off 42 balls, Chakaravarthy trapped Warner (57 off 41) LBW as he missed his reverse sweep. The KKR spinner bowled a wicket maiden with the equation reading 35 needed off 36.
Manish Pandey and Axar Patel released the pressure with two fours, off Narine. With 18 needed off 26, Manish Padey (21 off 23) departed trying to clear long on as he mistimed one to the fielder, off Anukul Roy. KKR got another one in the over as Nitish Rana cleaned up Aman Khan with a beauty. Rana gave away just three runs in that over.
KKR then missed a huge opportunity as Liton Das missed the stumping of Lalit Yadav, off Varun Chakaravarthy. He bowled an excellent over and gave away just three to bring the equation to 12 needed off 12.
DC took 5 runs off the penultimate over from Rana. With 7 needed off the last over, Rana handed the ball to Kulwant Khejroliya. Axar got a couple off the first ball courtesy a misfield at short fine leg which brought DC the extra run. He then flicked the next one to deep mid-wicket and scampered through for another two. It was a no ball as Khejroliya had overstepped. With 2 needed off 5, Axar flicked a full toss to deep mid-wicket off the Free-Hit and took another couple to cross the finish line. Axar Patel played a crucial knock of 19* off 22 balls to make sure Delhi got their first win of the season.
Earlier, Delhi Capitals captain David Warner won the toss and elected to bowl. They made three changes to the starting eleven as Phil Salt, Mukesh Kumar and Ishant Sharma replaced Mustafizur Rahman, Yash Dhull and Abishek Porel. They named Prithvi Shaw, Yash Dhull, Sarfaraz Khan, Ripal Patel and Chetan Sakariya as their substitutes.
Kolkata Knight Riders made four changes to their starting eleven as Jason Roy, Litton Das, Mandeep Singh and Kulwant Khejroliya replaced Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Lockie Ferguson, N Jagadeesan and Shardul Thakur. They named Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, N Jagadeesan and David Wiese as their substitutes.
Mukesh Kumar provided Delhi Capitals the early breakthrough as he had Litton Das caught at square leg off a short delivery in the second over. Jason Roy had started off well with two thumping fours off Kumar in that over but the DC pacer bounced back to get Das in the same over.
Anrich Nortje then sent back the in-form Venkatesh Iyer, caught at first slip in the next over to dent KKR. Mukesh Kumar then bowled a tight over and gave away just two and was in action again in the next over, pulling off a very good running catch at mid on to send back Nitish Rana as Ishant Sharma picked up his first wicket of IPL 2023.
KKR trudged to 35/3 at the end of the Powerplay.
Jason Roy then got a lifeline as Mitchell Marsh dropped a caught and bowled but KKR lost their fourth wicket in the next over as Axar Patel cleaned up Mandeep Singh who shuffled across and tried to scoop one but missed it completely. KKR reached 64/4 at the end of 10 overs.
Axar then got the huge wicket of the in-form Rinku Singh (6 off 8) who slog swept it straight into the hands of Lalit Yadav at deep square leg. The wickets kept falling as Sunil Narine pulled one straight to David Warner, off Ishant Sharma in the next over. Ishant finished off with a brilliant spell of 4-0-19-2.
DC then introduced Prithvi Shaw as their Impact Player, replacing Ishant.
With the run rate below six, Roy and Russell tried to up the scoring as Russell smacked a six over deep mid-wicket while Roy cracked a four through backward point as the pair accumulated 15 off the 14th over. But Kuldeep Yadav rocked KKR with two wickets in two balls as he had Roy caught at deep backward square leg and trapped Anukul Roy LBW off the next ball to reduce KKR to 93/8. Another one followed back in the pavilion as Umesh Yadav spooned one back to Anrich Nortje in the next over.
Andre Russell then farmed the strike with Varun Chakaravarthy and added crucial runs as he smashed three consecutive sixes off Mukesh Kumar in the last over to take KKR to a respectable 127. He remained unbeaten on 38 off 31 balls as he added 31 for the last wicket with Chakaravarthy.
