 "Kolkata Knight Riders' Sunil Narine scored 85 off just 39 balls, hitting seven fours and as many sixes. AP")
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) got the better of Delhi Capitals (DC) in the 16th match of the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) season in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday. It was certainly not the easiest of outings for the Capitals, who had beaten reigning champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the same venue only a few days back.
On Wednesday, Sunil Narine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi had other plans. And so did Mitchell Starc, who led the KKR bowling attack by example.
We now look at some top moments from the DC vs KKR contest:
Sunil Narine blitz
He may not have been able to convert his start to a fifty against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) the other day but on Wednesday, there was no stopping Sunil Narine. West Indians are synonymous for being big hitters in the IPL, and it was the same story with Narine, who now seems to have developed into an established opener for KKR.
Narine got off to a slow start but then accelerated in the fourth over, hitting Ishant Sharma for a couple of maximums. And a four. He did something similar against Rasikh Salam in the sixth, only this time, Narine punished the 23-year-old pacer for more boundaries —Three fours and a six.
Narine got to his fifty off just 21 deliveries, and in the powerplay, KKR had posted 88 for the loss of just one wicket, that of Phil Salt.
Impact Shorts
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Remember Angkrish Raghuvanshi? The U19 World Cup star from 2022 had made his IPL debut against RCB last week but only got to bat for the first time on Wednesday. Raghuvanshi began his innings with a pull off Anrich Nortje’s ball before punching through cover point the very next ball.
He took on Sumit Kumar in the ninth over, hitting him for a six and a four before Rasikh Salam once again had an over to forget, this time with Raghuvanshi slamming him for two maximums.
Raghuvanshi got to his fifty off just 25 deliveries in the 13th over, before being dismissed by Nortje in the 14th.
Russell, Rinku assault
Delhi Capitals’ evening turned from bad to worse quickly. Andre Russell and Rinku Singh continued doing Andre Russell and Rinku Singh things, taking on the opposition in the final overs.
While Russell scored 41 off just 19 deliveries, Rinku Singh did even one better, getting to 26 off just eight deliveries. Both were dismissed in a gap of just two balls but they had set the platform for KKR to reach 272/7 , the second highest total in IPL history.
Mitchell Starc finally among the wickets
Mitchell Starc’s days of misery in the IPL finally came to a halt on Wednesday . The Australia pacer had endured figures of 0/100 across the two matches prior to this, but this time, Starc returned to produce figures of 2/23 from four overs.
What’s more, both of his victims were his Australian teammates — Mitchell Marsh and David Warner. While Marsh was taken by Ramandeep Singh at cover point, Warner was cleaned up in the fifth.
Pant, Stubbs fifties in vain
Lack of support from top-order batters meant Rishabh Pant and Tristan Stubbs walked out to bat with immense pressure. And while both of them did their bit, with Pant scoring 55 and Stubbs 54, that wasn’t enough, and DC needed more contribution from the duo.
However, the Capitals themselves were 33/4 when Stubbs walked out to bat so unless they pulled off something miraculous, the end result was always going to be a KKR victory.