There is still life in Kolkata Knight Riders’ IPL title defence. With just three wins in nine matches before Tuesday (April 29, 2025), KKR came into this fixture against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium desperately needing to get over the line. The visiting team did just that by clinching a 14-run win that consigned Capitals to its third defeat in four matches in the national capital. After racking up 204 for nine, KKR restricted the host to 190 for nine with Sunil Narine working his magic.
The pendulum swung multiple times during Capitals’ chase. KKR had the ascendancy after striking thrice within the first seven overs, particularly with K.L. Rahul’s run-out from a direct hit. Along with Axar Patel, though, Faf du Plessis stitched together a 76-run stand and kept his team in the fray.
Just when DC seemed to be nudging ahead — it needed 75 runs from the final seven overs — the guile and game-sense of Narine came to the fore. Having been belted for a six by Axar off the first ball of the 14th over, he pulled his length back ever so slightly and drew the left-hander into skewing a lofted shot to Harshit Rana at covers. The mystery spinner castled Tristan Stubbs four balls later before getting rid of du Plessis in his next over. He finished with figures of 4-0-29-3. Anukul Roy and Varun Chakaravarthy too played their part in the win.
At the halfway stage, KKR’s batters must have had mixed feelings about their effort. While a rollicking start allowed the men in purple and gold to zoom to 79 for one at the end of the PowerPlay, there were many more runs they could have scored in the back end to take the game away from DC’s reach. Angkrish’s Raghuvanshi’s 44 was the highest score, with most of the other batters frittering away quickfire starts.
DC’s bowlers did their bit. Spinners Axar and Vipraj Nigam claimed two each while Mitchell Starc came away with three wickets. In the 20th over, Starc dismissed Rovman Powell and Anukul, thanks to a screamer by Dushmantha Chameera at deep backward square leg, off consecutive balls. Andre Russell was then run out to make it a hat-trick of wickets for DC. It wasn’t enough on the night for the home team though.
SCOREBOARD
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS
Rahmanullah Gurbaz c Porel b Starc 26 (12b, 5×4, 1×6), Sunil Narine lbw b Vipraj 27 (16b, 2×4, 2×6), Ajinkya Rahane lbw b Axar 26 (14b, 4×4, 1×6), Angkrish Raghuvanshi c Karun b Chameera 44 (32b, 3×4, 2×6), Venkatesh Iyer c Vipraj b Axar 7 (5b, 1×4), Rinku Singh c Starc b Vipraj 36 (25b, 3×4, 1×6), Andre Russell run out 17 (9b, 2×4, 1×6), Rovman Powell lbw b Starc 5 (5b, 1×4), Anukul Roy c Chameera b Starc 0 (1b), Harshit Rana (not out) 0 (1b), Varun Chakaravarthy (not out) 1 (1b); Extras (lb-3, nb-1, w-11): 15; Total (for nine wkts. in 20 overs): 204.
FALL OF WICKETS
1-48 (Gurbaz, 2.6 overs), 2-85 (Narine, 6.4), 3-91 (Rahane, 7.2), 4-113 (Venkatesh, 9.2), 5-174 (Raghuvanshi, 16.5), 6-177 (Rinku, 17.3), 7-203 (Powell, 19.3), 8-203 (Anukul, 19.4), 9-203 (Russell, 19.5).
CAPITALS BOWLING
Starc 4-0-43-3, Chameera 3-0-46-1, Mukesh 2-0-17-0, Vipraj 4-0-41-2, Axar 4-0-27-2, Kuldeep 3-0-27-0.
DELHI CAPITALS
Abishek Porel c Russell b Anukul 4 (2b, 1×4), Faf du Plessis c Rinku b Narine 62 (45b, 7×4, 2×6), Karun Nair lbw b Vaibhav 15 (13b, 2×4), K.L. Rahul run out 7 (5b, 1×4), Axar Patel c Harshit b Narine 43 (23b, 4×4, 3×6), Tristan Stubbs b Narine 1 (3b), Vipraj Nigam b Russell 38 (19b, 5×4, 2×6), Ashutosh Sharma (Impact Player for Mukesh) c Narine b Varun 7 (6b, 1×6), Mitchell Starc c Gurbaz b Varun 0 (1b), Dushmantha Chameera (not out) 2 (3b), Kuldeep Yadav (not out) 1 (1b); Extras (b-5, nb-1, w-4): 10; Total (for nine wkts. in 20 overs): 190.
FALL OF WICKETS
1-4 (Porel, 0.2), 2-43 (Karun, 4.3), 3-60 (Rahul, 6.3), 4-136 (Axar, 13.2), 5-138 (Stubbs, 13.6), 6-146 (du Plessis, 15.2), 7-160 (Ashutosh, 17.2), 8-160 (Starc, 17.3), 9-189 (Vipraj, 19.5).
KNIGHT RIDERS BOWLING
Anukul 4-0-27-1, Vaibhav (Impact Player for Venkatesh) 2-0-19-1, Harshit 4-0-49-0, Varun 4-0-39-2, Narine 4-0-29-3, Russell 2-0-22-1.
Toss: DC; PoM: Narine.
KKR won by 14 runs.
Published – April 30, 2025 12:10 am IST
