Visakhapatnam: Former champion Kolkata Knight Riders maintained their unbeaten run at the Indian Premier League 2024 with superb batting display against Delhi Capitals by winning 106 runs here at Dr Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDAC Cricket Stadium on Wednesday night.
After scoring mammoth 272 runs on the board, KKR restricted DC at 166 runs in 17.2 overs.
Delhi Capitals lost 4 wickets in power play. Openers David Warner (18) and Prithvi Shaw (10) went back inside 3rd over while Abishek Porel and Mitchell Marsh could not open their account. Captain Rishav Pant struck 55 runs from 25 balls with 5 sixes. He added 93 runs with Tristan Stubbs for the fifth wicket. South African youngstar Stubbs fought hard in the later part of the innings and scored 54 from 32 balls with 4 sixes. Spinner varun Chakaravarthy claimed 3 wickets for 33 runs while pacer Vaibhav Arora took 3 wickets for 27.
Earlier, Sunil Narine (85), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (54), Andre Russell (41) and Rinku Singh (26) produced blistering fireworks in carrying Kolkata Knight Riders to a gigantic 272/2, which is also the second-highest total in IPL's history.
On a placid pitch, KKR produced two hours of sensational carnage by hitting 22 fours and 18 sixes, with DC bowlers minus Kuldeep Yadav and Mukesh Kumar bearing the brunt of ruthless big-hitting. Narine was quick in creating room and lofting with ease to collect runs for fun in what is now his highest T20 score ever.
Electing to bat first, KKR got going with Phil Salt taking two fours off Ishant Sharma in the second over. Narine got into the act by slashing Khaleel Ahmed through the off-side for a boundary, before Salt joined in with two driven fours to take 15 runs off the third over.
Anrich Nortje made an immediate impact when Salt was caught at mid-off in the fifth over, but young Raghuvanshi pulled and punched off him to get two quick boundaries. Narine, who was lucky to survive on 24 when Rishabh Pant failed to take a review on a faint edge, hit Rasikh Salam for three fours and a six to complete a 21-ball fifty as KKR ended power-play at 88/1, going past 85/0 they made against RCB last week.
Post power-play, there was no respite for DC as Narine and Raghuvanshi continued to take runs aplenty against the bowlers. Narine nonchalantly hammered Axar Patel for two sixes, while Raghuvanshi was impressive in using wrists and fast bat-swing to smash boundaries, with a reverse-hit off Rasikh going over third man for six being the standout.
Brief Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 272/7 in 20 overs (Sunil Narine 85, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 54; Anrich Nortje 3-59, Ishant Sharma 2-43) beat Delhi Capitals 166 in 17.2 overs (Tristan Stubbs 54, Rishav Pant 55, David Warner 18, Varun Chakravarthy 3/33, Mitchell Starc 2/25, Vaibhav Arora 3/27). Agencies
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