A dominant Kolkata Knight Riders produced a brilliant bowling performance after their batters’ sensational display of power-hitting as they defeated a lackluster Delhi Capitals by 106 runs to move to the top of the IPL table in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday. Sunil Narine showcased his batting prowess with a blistering 85, while teenager Angkrish Raghuvanshi (54 off 27) impressed with a fluent fifty on his IPL batting debut as KKR posted an imposing 272/7, five runs short of the highest total in the history of the tournament. The Capitals never looked like they were in the game, whether it was with the ball or the bat. They collapsed under the pressure of the huge total.
Captain Rishabh Pant (55) scored his second successive half-century while Tristan Stubbs (54) also hit a fifty, but it was a lost cause as DC folded for 166 in 17.2 overs to suffer their third defeat of the season.
KKR clinching the first spot meant that Rajasthan Royals slipped to the second position. Meanwhile, DC also lost two places to move to ninth place. Punjab Kings rose to 7th position while Royal Challengers Bengaluru moved to 8th position.
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Narine continued his explosive run and punished all Delhi bowlers by sending the ball over the boundary rope seven times. He also hit seven fours in his 39-ball stay. The Capitals were guilty of dropping him on 53 and Narine made his opponents suffer as he achieved his highest ever score in T20 cricket.
Raghuvanshi (54 off 27 balls), who did not bat in his first IPL match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, was also firing on all cylinders, complementing Narine as the pair shared an explosive 104-run stand off 48 balls.
With Andre Russell (41 off 19 balls) and Rinku Singh (26 off 8 balls) also getting the big hits, batting looked like child’s play for KKR.
With the ball, pacer Vaibhav Arora and KKR’s record signing Australian fast bowler Mitchel Starc deflated the chase in the powerplay itself as they lost Delhi’s top four of Prithvi Shaw (10), Mitchell Marsh (0), Abhishek Porel (0). and David Warner (18).
Pant and Stubbs formed a partnership of 93 runs, and although they managed to score quickly, the required run rate rose to over 20 runs per over and only one result was possible.
Earlier, Delhi bowlers produced a forgettable performance as they conceded the highest total in the team’s history. KKR hit as many as 18 sixes and 28 fours.
Narine hit his first of many boundaries when he hit a short ball from Khaleel Ahmed to deep point.
The West Indian took a particular liking to veteran pacer Ishant Sharma and amassed 26 runs from the fourth, including three sixes and two fours, giving a taste of what was to come.
At the other end, Phil Salt hit a few before being dropped by David Warner but the Englishman could not take advantage of the reprieve and got out in the next ball to bring Raghuvanshi to middle.
The 18-year-old hit his first ever ball of the IPL for a boundary and that was followed by another four.
KKR continued to push boundaries and amassed 88 runs in the powerplay as DC bowlers struggled to find ways to stop them.
DC looked to be making progress by dismissing Narine and Raghuvanshi in successive overs, but Russell had other plans.
The DC bowlers were guilty of feeding the all-rounder with full tosses which he dispatched to the boundary with ease.
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