Nitish Rana kept calm in a tricky chase as Kolkata Knight Riders kept their play-off hopes alive with a three-wicket victory over Delhi Capitals in a low-scoring IPL contest, here on Tuesday.
The KKR bowlers made optimum use of the slow Sharjah track to restrict Delhi Capitals to 127 for nine.
T20 specialist Rana and seasoned Sunil Narine went after inexperienced Lalit Yadav in the 14th over and also attacked Kagiso Rabada in the 16th over to tilt the game in KKR’s favour.
This loss would be a wake-up call for DC remaining second in the table with 16 points even as KKR took their position in the 4th spot with 10 points.
On a relaid Sharjah track where run-scoring was difficult, DC did well enough till the 13th over when KKR were struggling at 76 for 4.
Rishabh Pant by then finished Ravichandran Ashwin’s (1/24 in 4 overs) quota and had to rely on Lalit Yadav’s fast off-breaks.
In the 16th over, Narine, launched into Rabada and got 21 runs which put KKR in the driver’s seat and despite some late jitters, Rana with a slashed boundary off Anrich Nortje finished the match in style.
Earlier, the KKR bowlers justified their skipper Eoin Morgan’s decision to put Delhi into bat as the ball was stopping before coming onto the bat.
For Delhi Capitals, only Steve Smith and skipper Rishabh Pant crossed the 30-run mark as run-scoring looked quite a difficult task. Not a single six was hit during the entire innings.
Capitals opener Shikhar Dhawan hit five boundaries in quick time as he converted a lot of balls into half volleys before Venkatesh pouched him at point of Lockie Ferguson.
After the Powerplay, DC were 39 for one but it soon became 40 for two, as Sunil Narine castled Shreyas Iyer in the seventh over.
Then Pant joined Smith and both found scoring difficult as there was no pace off the track and the balls were not really coming onto the bat.
Varun Chakravarthy was steady while Narine also payed his part.
Smith tried changing gears and hammered successive fours in the 10th over off Chakravarthy, as Delhi got 12 from that over.
Smith then slog swept Narine and was looking in his element when Ferguson pegged back Delhi by castling Smith as they slipped to 77/3.
Kolkata then grabbed three quick wickets, as Shimron Hetmyer, Lalit Yadav, who was trapped in front by Narine, and Axar Patel too perished cheaply as Delhi was teetering at 92/6.
With Pant failing, Venkatesh bowled really well in the back-10 mixing it up nicely at a speed of nearly 130 kmph which is certain to keep Hardik Pandya on frame, if not in coming days, then definitely in coming months.
Pant became the leading run-scorer for Delhi Capitals outstanding as Virender Sehwag.
