Hello and a warm welcome to yet another blog on the daily match reviews on this year’s IPL In this blog I will be writing about the match played by the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Delhi Capitals at the iconic Eden Gardens, which turned out to be a completely one-sided affair. So without any further delay, let’s get started!
Rishabh Pant won the toss and opted to bat first on another 200 track at Eden. But this move didn’t work as the Delhi top and middle-order had a nightmare with the bat, and all batters were cheaply sent back to the pavilion. Some contributions, especially from Pant and Kuldeep helped the Capitals scamper through 150, easily 30-50 runs below par. The KKR openers were absolutely brilliant yet again, hitting more than half the runs required in the powerplay. Axar Patel bowled beautifully and economically, giving his team an outside chance after the Knight Riders lost 3 wickets in quick succession. But the two Iyers, Shreyas and Venkatesh, played a slow and steady partnership to ensure KKR without any hiccups chased the target with ease, by 7 wickets and 21 balls spare.
On a one-sided thumping for the Capitals, they would be proud of how Kuldeep played with the bat, giving those crucial 35 runs for his side to take DC to at least more than 150, or else it would be much worse for them. Pant did say the wicket helped the spinners and I feel that the Delhi batters should have steadied the ship after losing their openers, but they went aggressively and lost their wickets. Pant was absolutely right at the toss as Chakaravarthy picked 3 wickets, which will boost his confidence as he has had an off-season so far. But some big concerns for KKR are Starc’s form, the only bowler who had given 43 runs in his 3 overs on a day where DC scored just 153 with the lower-order giving them those last 50 runs and the current form of Rinku Singh, even being promoted to 3 today, failed to impress with the bat. But they would be happy with their openers, as they have contributed consistently, giving them a huge boost from the powerplay. I also have to credit Shreyas and Venkatesh because they didn’t allow a collapse to happen when the DC bowlers gave Pant some hope, playing the big shots only after they settled in, initially about 10-15 balls. So overall, the DC juggernaut had an off day at the Eden Gardens as Chakaravarthy led the destruction of the DC batters and the KKR’s top and middle-order got the job done quite comfortably, improving their huge NRR as well.
So here we come to the end of this blog. The next one will be on the LSG v MI game… So stay tuned for that!