After an aggressive half-century by Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine, Varun Chakraborty's lethal bowling helped Kolkata Knight Riders beat Delhi Capitals by 59 runs in a match played in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. After winning the toss, Delhi invited Kolkata to bat first. Kolkata set a challenging target of 195 against Delhi. However, the Delhi batsmen fell to their knees against Varun Chakraborty's deadly bowling and the team could only manage 135 for 9 in 20 overs. Earlier, Kolkata scored 194 for six in the allotted 20 overs.
For Kolkata, Nitish Rana played an 81-run innings while Varun Chakraborty took five wickets. The victory did not change the order of the two teams in the points table. Delhi are second with 14 points while fourth-ranked Kolkata have 12 points. However, the win has strengthened Kolkata's bid to reach the playoffs.
The Delhi team, which came out on top to score 195, had a bad start. Pat Cummins dismissed both openers for 13. Ajinkya Rahane could not even open the account while Shikhar Dhawan, who was playing in superb form, gathered the pavilion with six runs. However, captain Shreyas Iyer and wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant took over. But later Varun Chakraborty made a splash.
Iyer and Pant shared a 63-run partnership. Iyer scored 47 off 38 balls with five fours while Pant played 27 off 33 balls. Which included two fours and a six. But Delhi's middle order collapsed against Chakraborty, which helped Kolkata to an easy victory. Chakraborty was five wickets quick, giving up 20 runs in four overs. While Pat Cummins was three and Loki Ferguson was one wicket quick.
Earlier, with the help of an aggressive half-century from openers Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine, the Kolkata Knight Riders scored 194 for six in the allotted 20 overs. Kolkata were invited to bat first but the team did not start well. With 11 runs, the team lost the wicket of Shubhaman Gill who scored nine runs. Delhi lost three wickets for 42 runs. Rahul Tripathi (13) and wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik (three) were all in the pavilion.
However, Nitish Rana later retained one end and was backed by Narain at the other end. The pair shared a 115-run partnership. Both the batsmen washed the bowlers of Delhi Capitals and made the run rate extremely fast. In that too, Narain batted more aggressively. Narine was dismissed for 64 off 32 balls with six fours and four sixes. Rana, meanwhile, hit 81 off 53 balls with 13 fours and a six. Captain Eoin Morgan also contributed 17 off nine balls with two fours and a six. For Delhi, Enrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada and Marcus Stoinis were quick for one wicket each.
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