After suffering a shattering loss at home to Punjab Kings, where their goal of 262 was easily chased down, Kolkata Knight Riders shown tenacity and willpower. They easily defeated Delhi Capitals by seven wickets on Monday in their Indian Premier League 2024 encounter in Kolkata. After Varun Chakravarthy’s ball-handling prowess, opener Philip Salt struck another explosive fifty-plus as Kolkata chased down a meagre 154 in just 16.3 overs.
DC captain Rishabh Pant predicted during the toss that the ground will be dry and benefit spinners, which it did, but the visitors did not contribute much. After choosing to bat first, KKR’s disciplined bowlers stopped the Capitals at 153 for nine. Despite losing three wickets, the squad managed to score 67 runs during the power play. However, after Pant was dismissed (27 off 20 balls), the visitors just gave up. Spinner Kuldeep Yadav contributed with an undefeated 35 off 26 balls while batting at number nine. The best bowler for KKR was Varun, who finished with fantastic numbers of 3/16 in four overs. Vaibhav Arora, who was back, also excelled, taking Shai Hope’s wicket with an unplayable delivery.
As a reaction to the target, Kolkata stormed to 79 for no loss in the power play, with Salt taking the DC bowling attack to task with 68 off 33 balls. With 21 balls remaining, the home team successfully chased down 154 with to Salt’s forceful knock.
Five teams were tied at 10 points going into the match, but Kolkata Knight Riders have pulled away from the group, solidifying their hold on second place with a decisive victory at Eden Gardens that also helped them raise their net run-rate to 1.096. With 12 points from nine matches, KKR has solidified their position at second place and now has the greatest run-rate among the ten teams in the standings.
Delhi, meanwhile, has 10 points from 11 games, keeping them in sixth place in the standings. They appear to be running out of time to force their way into the playoffs with just three games remaining.
