Kolkata Knight Riders registered a huge 106-run win over Delhi Capitals to continue their unbeaten run in the Indian Premier League 2024 on Wednesday. Sunil Narine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi registered quickfire fifties to help Kolkata post 272 total batting first and then impressive bowling bowled out Delhi on just 166 in Visakhapatnam.
A win also boosted Shreyas Iyer-led Kolkata to the top position in the IPL 2024 points table with three wins in their opening three games while Delhi slipped to the ninth position with three defeats in four games.
Shreyas won the toss and elected to bat first at ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium with Angkrish Raghuvanshi making his debut for Kolkata and Sumit Kumar replacing injured Mukesh Kumar for the hosts.
Sunil Narine and Phil Salt gave Kolkata a flying start by adding 60 runs for the opening wicket in just 27 balls. Salt departed early after scoring 18 runs but Narine kept the bashing on throughout his innings. Narine and Raghuvanshi added 104 runs for the second wicket with both registering their first fifty of the season.
Narine top-scored with 85 off just 39 balls while the 18-year-old Raghuvanshi recorded 54 off 27 balls on his IPL debut. Kolkata added 135 runs in the first ten overs and reached the 200-run mark in 15.2 overs.
Kolkata lost Narine and Raghuvanshi departed in the middle overs but late cameos from Andre Russell (41 off 19 balls) and Rinku Singh (26 off 8 balls) boosted KKR to 272/7 in 20 overs, the second-highest total in IPL history. Anrich Nortje took three wickets while Ishant Sharma bagged two for Delhi Capitals.
Delhi struggled for a start as Prithvi Shaw departed after scoring just 10 runs. Mitchell Starc then ended his poor run of form by dismissing Mitchell Marsh on a duck in the third over. Delhi lost impact sub Abishek Porel on a duck in the fourth over and then Starc stunned the home crowd with David Warner's big wicket in the fifth over.
However, Delhi managed to make a comeback with captain Rishabh Pant and South African batter Tristan Stubbs adding 93 runs for the fifth wicket. Both Pant and Tristan registered impressive quickfire fifties but Varun Chakravarthy ended any chances of Delhi's comeback with two wickets in the 13th over.
Pant top-scored with 55 off just 25 balls and Tristan added 54 runs as Delhi's innings collapsed to 166 in 17.2 overs. Chakravarthy and Vaibhav Arora took three wickets each for Kolkata while Starc bagged two. Narine claimed the Player of the Match award for his 85 off just 39 balls knock and a wicket of Sumit Kumar.
Delhi Capitals Playing XI: Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Sumit Kumar, Rasikh Dar Salam, Anrich Nortje, Ishant Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed.
Kolkata Knight Riders Playing XI: Philip Salt (wk), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy.
