Delhi Capitals return to winning ways, hammer Kolkata Knight Riders

Shaw, Warner hit fifties; Kuldeep takes four, Khaleel three

MUMBAI: A fantastic four-wicket haul from left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav combined with left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed taking three wickets helped Delhi Capitals snap their two-match losing streak with a 44-run win over table-toppers Kolkata Knight Riders at the Brabourne Stadium, here on Sunday.

After Delhi posted a gigantic 215/5 in their 20 overs, thanks to fifties from David Warner, Prithvi Shaw and some blazing knocks from captain Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur, Kolkata needed similar knocks from their batters. But barring a 54 from captain Shreyas Iyer, there weren't many substantial contributions as Kolkata crashed to 171 all out in 19.4 overs.

Kolkata began their chase by losing openers Venkatesh Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane to Ahmed in power-play.

Shreyas Iyer and Nitish Rana got off to a good start by taking boundaries off Axar and Kuldeep. The duo then took 17 runs off Rovman Powell's part-time pace in the tenth over to bring up fifty of their partnership. Just as the 69-run partnership began to take a more threatening look, Lalit Yadav's off-spin took out Rana as the left-hander smacked a low full toss straight to long-on just after hitting a six.

Pat Cummins' hope of repeating the stunning 14-ball fifty heroics against Mumbai came to a premature end when he missed a wild slog off Kuldeep and was trapped plumb lbw in front of leg-stump.

Andre Russell was uncomfortable in his 21-ball 24 and sliced uppishly to point off Thakur in the final over. A ball later, Thakur finished off the match by having Rasikh Salam holing out to long-on to end Delhi's two-match losing streak.

Earlier, fifties from openers Prithvi Shaw (51 off 29 balls) and David Warner (61 off 45 balls) followed by a late onslaught from Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur took Delhi Capitals to a gigantic 215/5.

Shaw and Warner, along with Rishabh Pant's burst of 27 set the stage for Delhi to amass a massive total. But Sunil Narine, with his 2/21, staged a mini-fightback for Kolkata as 200 looked difficult for Delhi to achieve. It took a whirlwind stand of 49 off just 20 balls from Patel (22 not out) and Thakur (29 not out) to set a 216-run target for Kolkata.

Brief Scores: Delhi Capitals 215/5 in 20 overs (David Warner 61, Prithvi Shaw 51; Sunil Narine 2/21, Andre Russell 1/16) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 171 all out in 19.4 overs (Shreyas Iyer 54, Nitish Rana 30; Kuldeep Yadav 4/35, Khaleel Ahmed 3/25) by 44 runs. IANS

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