Sunil Narine top-scored with 85 (39b, 7×4, 7×6) as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) took apart Delhi Capitals’ (DC) bowling like cotton candy to post 272 for seven before going on to win by 106 runs at the Dr. YSR ACA-VDCA cricket stadium here on Wednesday.
Narine batted in stark contrast to his opening partner Phil Salt. With the nonchalance of, say, Deadpool or Han Solo, Narine swatted sixes and fours as if sadistically driving away mosquitoes.
On the other hand, Salt, one of the hardest hitters of the ball in modern cricket, clubbed the ball as hard as Thor would hammer anything.
While Salt hit two consecutive fours — a loft over covers and a slash past the short third man— in Ishant Sharma’s first over, Narine hit three sixes and two fours in his second. He launched a six over long off, pulled one to the deep square leg boundary, and sliced one to the extra cover boundary. Thereafter, he punished every single bowler who bowled at him.
Raghuvanshi delights
The 18-year-old Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who had begun his innings with a pull and a punch beyond the point fielder for back-to-back fours off Anrich Nortje, was methodically violent.
He was Virat Kohli-like with his cover drive and pull to the deep midwicket boundary. Yet, as if in a fit of temper, he reverse-hit Rasikh Salam for six. He hit two more sixes off Sumit Kumar and Rasikh to the deep midwicket boundary.
For the rest of the innings, KKR was in a world of funhouse mirrors as Andre Russell and Rinku Singh burned the DC ‘house of hope’ down to cinders.
In response, Capitals lost four wickets in the PowerPlay itself.
However, skipper Rishabh Pant resolutely braved on as did Sisyphus with his seemingly daunting task of rolling a boulder up a hill.
Pant (55, 25b, 4×4, 5×6), who hit four fours and two sixes off a Venkatesh Iyer over, looked like he was carrying a niggle.
Tristan Stubbs also came good for Delhi, scoring 54 off 32 balls which included four fours and two sixes each off spinners Varun Chakaravarthy and Narine.
SCOREBOARD
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS
Phil Salt c Stubbs b Nortje 18 (12b, 4×4), Sunil Narine c Pant b Marsh 85 (39b, 7×4, 7×6), Angkrish Raghuvanshi c Ishant b Nortje 54 (27b, 5×4, 3×6), Andre Russell b Ishant 41 (19b, 4×4, 3×6), Shreyas Iyer c Stubbs b Khaleel 18 (11b, 2×6), Rinku Singh c Warner b Nortje 26 (8b, 1×4, 3×6), Venkatesh Iyer (not out) 5 (2b, 1×4), Ramandeep Singh c Shaw b Ishant 2 (2b), Mitchell Starc (not out) 1 (1b); Extras (b-4, lb-2, nb-1, w-15): 22; Total (for seven wkts. in 20 overs): 272.
FALL OF WICKETS
1-60 (Salt, 4.3 overs), 2-164 (Narine, 12.3), 3-176 (Raghuvanshi, 13.2), 4-232 (Shreyas, 17.2), 5-264 (Rinku, 18.6), 6-264 (Russell, 19.1), 7-266 (Ramandeep, 19.3).
CAPITALS BOWLING
Khaleel 4-0-43-1, Ishant 3-0-43-2, Nortje 4-0-59-3, Rasikh 3-0-47-0, Sumit 2-0-19-0, Axar 1-0-18-0, Marsh 3-0-37-1.
DELHI CAPITALS
David Warner b Starc 18 (13b, 2×4, 1×6), Prithvi Shaw c Varun b Vaibhav 10 (7b, 2×4), Mitchell Marsh c Ramandeep b Starc 0 (2b), Abishek Porel (Impact Player in place of Khaleel) c Narine b Vaibhav 0 (5b), Rishabh Pant c Shreyas b Varun 55 (25b, 4×4, 5×6), Tristan Stubbs c Starc b Varun 54 (32b, 4×4, 4×6), Axar Patel c sub (Pandey) b Varun 0 (1b), Sumit Kumar c sub (Pandey) b Narine 7 (6b, 1×6), Rasikh Salam c Salt b Vaibhav 1 (5b), Anrich Nortje c Shreyas b Russell 4 (6b), Ishant Sharma (not out) 1 (3b); Extras (b-4, lb-6, nb-1, w-5): 16; Total (in 17.2 overs): 166.
FALL OF WICKETS
1-21 (Shaw, 1.5), 2-26 (Marsh, 2.5), 3-27 (Porel, 3.6), 4-33 (Warner, 4.3), 5-126 (Pant, 12.2), 6-126 (Axar, 12.3), 7-159 (Stubbs, 14.5), 8-159 (Sumit, 15.1), 9-161 (Rasikh, 16.1).
KNIGHT RIDERS BOWLING
Starc 3-0-25-2, Vaibhav (Impact Player in place of Raghuvanshi) 4-0-27-3, Russell 1.2-0-14-1, Narine 4-0-29-1, Varun 4-0-33-3, Venkatesh 1-0-28-0.
Toss: KKR; PoM: Narine.
KKR won by 106 runs.
DC 87 for four
Capitals were 87 for four in 10 overs with Pant (24) and Stubbs (28) batting. Shaw (10), Warner (18), Marsh (0) and Porel (0) were back in the dugout