Mumbai, April 28: Clinical bowling by Kuldeep Yadav (4/14) and Mustafizur Rahman (3/18) overshadowed an excellent half-century comeback from Nitish Rana (57 of 34) as Delhi Capitals restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to 146/9 in 20 overs in IPL 2022 Match 41 at Wankhede Stadium here.
Kuldeep showed his brilliant best against his old franchise and bowled like he had something to prove. He threw the ball up, mixed up the ones and wrong sliders and varied the pace. He dispatched KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer (42), Baba Indrajith (6), Sunil Narine (0) and Andre Russell (0) to finish 4/14. Too bad he didn’t get to shoot his fourth over or he could have completed a fiftieth. But two successive wickets from Baba Indrajith and Narine broke KKR’s back.
Mustafizur started well but claimed three wickets in the 20th, sending back Nitish Rana, Tim Southee and Rinku Singh – Rana and Southee from successive balls.
Sent to bat, Kolkata’s middle and high order never got going as they struggled with clinical skittles from Delhi’s capitals. They posted a meager 29/2 in the power-play overs and hit fifty runs at the halfway point.
They reached 100 runs only in 15th and it was only thanks to the heroics of Nitish Rana that they managed to reach a modest total.
Aaron Finch was the first to go, floored by Chetan Sakaria with one that went wide and the first Aussie match was beaten outright. Finch could have called in the previous installment, but Rovman Powell dropped a regulation catch, running from the middle of the wicket, sliding to take the catch, but the ball slipped out of his hands. Finch was out by three and Kolkata had just four runs on the board.
Fellow starter Venkatesh Iyer (6-for-12) didn’t last long and was caught by Sakaria inside the circle as he tried to sweep Axar Patel but couldn’t connect properly. Sunil Narine went for a first ball duck and Baba Indrajith didn’t last long and the Knight Riders were cut to 35/4 in the eighth over.
Captain Shreyas Iyer repaired the innings a bit with a 37-ball 42 with Nitish Rana and saved 48 runs for the fifth wicket. Shreyas hit three fours during his stay, all for Axar Patel, but the KKR batsmen were unable to break the dominance of the Delhi Capitals bowlers, especially Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel, in the intermissions. Shreyas was ejected by the video referee after Kuldeep misled him with a wrong ‘a’ and Rishabh Pant bagged a low, shin-high, one-handed catch to end his inning.
Rana continued the onslaught of death overs when he hit Lalit Yadav for 17 runs on the 17, including a six from a beamer off the stump and another firing another six from a wide half-volley point.
Rana and Rinku Singh shared a 63-run, 35-ball partnership for the seventh wicket that really supported KKR’s innings. They could have gotten a few more runs but Rinku was eliminated on Mustafizur Rahman’s second ball of the final and after Umesh Yadav ran for a leg, Rana pocketed for cover as a libero trying to force some quick runs. Mustafizur gave up just two runs in the 20th and claimed three wickets, thus applying the brakes on KKR’s free scoring which had produced 43 overs in three overs at 17-19.
Short scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 146/9 in 20 overs (Shreyas Iyer 42, Nitish Rana 57; Kuldeep Yadav 4/14, Mustafizur Rahman 3/18) vs. Delhi Capitals.