Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) continued their fine form in the Indian Premier League (IPL) picking up a massive 106-run win against Delhi Capitals on Wednesday in a match that witnessed explosive batting by the team in purple.
KKR opener Sunil Narine hit seven sixes and seven boundaries on his way to a blistering 85 off just 39 deliveries to set up the team for a huge total. Joined by promising youngster Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who scored 54 off 27 with five fours and three sixes, the duo breached the 100-run mark before reaching the halfway point of their innings.
The explosive top-order batting allowed KKR to make some tweaks to their order as they sent hard-hitter Andre Russell in at number four after Narine’s dismissal to keep the scoring rate high. Russell managed to score 41 in 19 balls at a strike rate of 215.79. DC managed to bring the scoring rate down a little with two quick wickets.
With Raghuvanshi gone after impressing hugely, in stepped skipper Shreyas Iyer. He alongside Russell took the total to 232 before Iyer was sent home for 18 runs including two sixes. With that wicket, in came Rinku Singh, known for his destruction in the death overs.
The batting up top was so impressive that it allowed KKR to send Venkatesh Iyer at five down. By the time the first innings ended, KKR had racked up the second-highest team total in the history of the IPL with 272 runs in their 20 overs.
The DC bowlers were taken for a ride with every KKR batter putting in a shift of hard-hitting. Anrich Nortje, who gave away the most runs, managed to get three wickets, while Ishant Sharma bagged two and Mitchell Marsh and Khaleel Ahmed had to contend with one each.
Needing to chase down 273 for the win, the DC innings faltered in the beginning. After a decent start, they started losing wickets which made it difficult. DC was four wickets down for just 33 runs. From there on, skipper Rishabh Pant picked his side up and showed some remarkable batting skills. Pant brought up his 50 before departing and made the team look dangerous. However, his dismissal meant DC did not have much firepower down the order to see out the chase.
KKR piled on the pressure to pick up frequent wickets and ended the match in the 18th over having dismissed DC for 166 runs to pick up the win.
