IPL 2022, Kolkata Knight Riders vs Delhi Capitals Highlights: Rovman Powell and Kuldeep Yadav leads Delhi Capitals to a comfortable 4-wicket victory
On Thursday, Delhi Capitals kept their qualification hopes alive after chasing Kolkata Knight Riders' easy target that Delhi Capitals unintentionally made difficult for themselves. Delhi suffered a middle-order collapse in the second innings.
Kuldeep Yadav Player of the match against KKRHowever, Rovman Powell came in to rescue them from the tough spot to achieve the target with six balls remaining.
The Delhi Capitals were chasing a target of 147-runs as Kuldeep Yadav took four wickets in the first innings to restrict his former team below the 150 mark. While he only gave away 14 runs in his three overs long spells.
Kuldeep Yadav rips through Kolkata Knight Riders'Riders' batting line-up.
The opening pair of Aaron Finch and Venkatesh Iyer were sent in to bat after Delhi Capitals won the toss. And it's fair to say Kolkata Knight Riders' batting performance did not live up to the expectations of their fans right from the start.
Finch was already back in the pavilion in the second over after Chetan Sakariya's brilliant ball connected with his off-stump. Venkatesh Iyer followed suit and departed in the fifth over with six runs to his name off twice the number of balls.
Save captain Shreyas Iyer and middle-order saviour Nitish Rana, none of Kolkata's marquee batters could score runs in double-digits up until number 8. Rinku Singh took it upon himself in the latter stage of the first innings.
Heavy-hitters Sunil Narine and Andre Russell proved to be unreliable as both of them departed for a duck.
Domestic cricket veteran Baba Indrajith was also unable to showcase his prowess as a thumping Kuldeep Yadav took him out while trying to clear the fence. Indeed not a debut that he waited a decade.
After the dust settled, only Shreyas Iyer's innings of 42 off 37 balls and Nitish Rana's life-saving half-century mattered for the Kolkata camp. It looked like they finally saved themselves from the embarrassment of posting a target of 100 runs.
After Shreyas Iyer's departure, number 8 Rinku Singh formed a stable partnership with Nitish Rana worth 62 runs for the seventh wicket and scored 23 off 16 balls to take Kolkata to a total of 146 runs.
Kolkata Knight Riders could have scored more than 150 runs; however, Mustafizur Rahman had other plans and conceded only two runs in the last over to pick up three wickets.
Delhi Capitals overcome a middle-order collapse to cruise to victory.
Let's say that the Delhi Capitals didn't have the best start. It looked pretty easy for Delhi to chase a target of 147 runs; however, Umesh Yadav was keen on taking his side all the way home.
The pacer opened Kolkata's bowling and took a brilliant catch to dismiss Delhi's favourite, Prithvi Shaw, on the very first ball of the second innings.
After hitting two boundaries, the onus fell on David Warner after Mitchell Marsh quickly followed Shaw to the dugout.
Warner did brilliantly take care of the crease as he added 65 runs with number 4, Lalit Yadav, as Delhi neared a 100 with 82 already on the board just shy of the 10th over of the second innings.
However, Warner was Umesh Yadav's next prey and fell short of his half-century by eight runs.
What followed was nothing short of a nightmare for the Delhi Capitals, as they went from 82/2 to 84/5 in just a matter of 11 balls. Axar Patel tried to bring stability to Delhi's innings after Lalit Yadav and Rishabh Pant's dismissal, but he was also runout at 24 runs as the tally reached 113/6.
Things looked bad for Delhi Capitals as they needed 34 runs off of the following five overs to keep their qualification aspirations breathing. Meanwhile, skipper Shreyas Iyer made a costly mistake that cost him the match.
Over to bowl was given to irregular right-arm pacer Venkatesh Iyer. Rovman Powell quickly spotted his opportunity while he hung in there with Shardul Thakur and hit the 17th over for 18 runs, taking the pressure off of himself.
It was just a walk in the garden for Delhi from there on as they chased their target with six balls to spare.
Delhi Capitals are now number six in the standings, while Kolkata Knight Riders are at the eighth spot. Now, Delhi Capitals will meet Lucknow Super Giants on 1st May, while Kolkata Knight Riders play against Rajasthan Royals the next day.