Kolkata Knight Riders almost broke the record of highest total
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) beat Delhi Capitals (DC) by 106 runs in yesterday’s IPL 2024 game at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. Batting first after winning the toss, KKR notched up 272-7, the second-highest total in IPL history before bowling out Delhi Capitals for 166 in 17.2 overs. Kolkata’s total of 272 was just five runs short of the SunRisers Hyderabad’s 277-3, which was registered against Mumbai Indians only a few days back.
Kolkata Knight Riders were insane
Sunil Narine top-scored for KKR with a scintillating 85 off 39, hitting seven fours and as many sixes. He went after Ishant Sharma in the fourth over and clubbed him for three sixes and two fours. Incidentally, Rishabh Pant’s review for caught behind was denied on the fourth ball of the over, as the DC captain had run out of time. Ultra Edge had showed a spike on replay. There was temporary respite for DC as Phil Salt (18 off 12) was caught at mid-off a ball after he was dropped by David Warner at deep backward square leg. Narine and IPL debut Angkrish Raghuvanshi (54 off 27), though, put Delhi Capitals on the back foot, adding 104 for the second wicket.
Narine and Raghuvanshi scored half centuries
Narine brought up his fifty off just 21 balls by clobbering Rasikh Salam for a six and three fours in the last over of the powerplay. Fours and sixes came at will during the partnership until Narine top-edged a bouncer from Mitchell Marsh to the keeper. Raghuvanshi fell after crossing his fifty, playing a ramp off Anrich Nortje to deep third man. Andre Russell (41 off 19) came in and put the finishing touches to the innings, slamming four fours and three sixes. It needed a sensational yorker from Ishant to end his blazing knock. Rinku Singh chipped in with 26 off eight as KKR threatened SRH’s total of 277 before narrowly falling short.
Kolkata fast bowlers were brilliant
Chasing a huge total of 273, Delhi Capitals needed to get off to a flying start. Instead, they were four down for 33 inside five overs. Prithvi Shaw (10) was brilliantly caught by a diving Varun Chakaravarthy as he mishit one from Vaibhav Arora (3-27) Marsh (0) sliced a catch to cover point off Mitchell Starc’s (2-25). Abishek Porel (0) miscued a short ball off Arora and offered a catch to short fine leg. Next, Warner (18 off 13) dragged a good length ball from Starc back onto his stumps immediately after slamming the KKR left-armer for a maximum.
Rishabh Pant and Tristan Stubbs fought back
Pant (55 off 25) and Tristan Stubbs (54 off 32) added 93 for the fifth wicket to lift DC. Both batters, though, perished to Chakravarthy (3-33), trying to keep up with the steep asking rate. Once the duo was dismissed, Delhi’s resistance came to an end pretty quickly.
Kevin Varchand