Former Kolkata Knight Riders’ IPL-winning captain and mentor Gautam Gambhir’s presence at the Kotla on Friday was perhaps an inspiration. Ajinkya Rahane’s men produced one of their best shows this season to win their fourth match on the trot.
Delhi Capitals hardly managed to put up a fight at their home ground as KKR raced to an eight-wicket victory with 34 balls remaining. The 143-run target could have been tricky on a slow wicket but Impact Player Finn Allen smashed a 47-ball unbeaten 100 which made things look easier.
Allen was lethal against the Capitals’ spinners, smashing 10 sixes, the third-highest by a Knight Riders batter after Brendon McCullum hit 13 against RCB in 2008 and Andre Russell’s 11 against CSK in 2018.
At no point during the Knights’ chase did the required run-rate cross 8 an over as Allen stitched together an unbroken 116-run partnership with Australian Cameron Green off 64 balls.
Earlier, the Knights depended on their spin trio of Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Anukul Roy to make dents in the Capitals’ batting.
Narine strangled the hosts in the middle overs on a tacky surface to restrict them to 142/8 after being put into bat.
Sri Lankan Pathum Nissanka struck a quick 50 but the side lost momentum after his dismissal as the spinners held fort. Anukul (2/31) and Narine (1/17) applied the brakes
and were well complemented by Varun.
Ashutosh Sharma’s late 39 off 28 gave the Capitals some respite in the closing stages.
Having witnessed the slow pace of the wicket, the Knights began carefully. Both Allen and Ajinkya Rahane knew they had to push themselves to score boundaries even against good balls on the surface.
An unfortunate run out at the non-striker’s end led to Rahane’s departure while Angkrish Raghuvanshi was foxed by the turn as he tried to sweep. But Allen and Green ensured there were no more slip-ups.
Poor batting
Batting has always been responsible for the Capitals’ inconsistent showing this season. A lot depended on the top-order of Nissanka, KL Rahul and Nitish Rana.
As the Capitals raced to 49 in an opening stand off 29 balls, it seemed they would post a decent total. But their struggles against spin surfaced once Rahul was dismissed.
Kartik Tyagi and Green removed Rahul and Rana (8), respectively, in quick
succession and the Capitals just collapsed.
Nissanka tried to stem the rot but once he fell to Anukul, the innings crumbled. Soon after bringing up his half-century with a crisp boundary through extra cover, Anukul outfoxed Nissanka off the next delivery as he was stumped trying to break free.
Just 11 runs came between the 12th and 16th overs, the fewest by any IPL team in this phase. The previous fewest was 12 runs by CSK against KKR last year at the Chepauk.