KKR vs DC in 50 Words
Nortje and Rabada pegged KKR back with 3 wickets between them, but Rana and Narine turned the tables with a fiery counter-attack. Chasing 195, a bad day at the office kept getting worse as we suffered a 59-run defeat. The curse of Abu Dhabi hasn’t been lifted yet.
Narine, Rana’s Counter-Attack Shifts Momentum
The spin of the coin went our way and Shreyas Iyer decided to bowl first, citing the grass on the pitch that our pacers can exploit as one of the reasons. Shubman Gill got a couple of boundaries away in the first over of the game off Tushar, but the returning Nortje got rid of the opener in the very next over to pick up yet another wicket in the powerplay.
A largely quiet period with the field restrictions on ended on an even sweeter note as Anrich Nortje bowled the perfect yorker at searing pace to hit the timber behind Tripathi.
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The scoreboard that read 36/2 at the end of first six, moved only to 42 before Rabada struck to send Karthik back to the dugout. Surprisingly, Sunil Narine walked in at number 5 and immediately took the attack to us. Ashwin and Deshpande gave away three fours and six in the ninth and tenth over, with Narine scoring four of those boundaries. The Rana-Narine duo were upping the ante despite the loss of wickets.
Both the southpaws scored at least two boundaries in overs 9 through 12, a time when the run rate usually takes a downward dip. The left-handers didn’t just keep the left-arm orthodox bowler Axar Patel out of the attack, but also took a liking to Ashwin, Stoinis and Tushar.
After having struggled at number 3 in the last few innings, Nitish Rana was enjoying his promotion to the top of the order. He brought up his fifty off 35 balls at the end of the 13th with a streaky boundary through the vacant slips.
From 33 off 17, Sunil Narine hit a few meaty blows to go past Nitish Rana’s score. At the end of the 15th over, KKR were on 142/3 with Nitish Rana on 56* off 38 and Sunil Narine on 57* off 26. Both of them had taken the game by the scruff of the neck and turned it around.
Finally, Rabada had Narine mistime a pull to depart for 64 off 32. With a strike rate of a flat 200, he had done his job and done it exceptionally well.
Eoin Morgan needed no sighters and picked up a boundary off his second ball. He went on to score another four and six in his cameo, while Rana added three more to his fours column to take his score to 81. Both of them were dismissed off successive deliveries at the end of the innings. At the half, the Knights would have been the happier group with a total of 194/6 on the board. The 115-run stand between Rana and Narine had turned the tables, and our batsmen had their task cut out.
A Bad Day at the Office
It was a horror start to the chase as Ajinkya Rahane was trapped by Pat Cummins in front of the stumps on the very first ball. Shreyas Iyer walked in and immediately got a boundary away, the only runs from the opening over.
The in-form man, Shikhar Dhawan got one ball to the fence before he too fell victim to Pat Cummins’ consistency. The ball to Shikhar in particular was a peach, going past the left-hander’s defences to hit the off stump.
Iyer made the most of the few bad balls that came our way with two fine flicks to the ropes off Nagarkoti. Rishabh Pant brought out a trademark swivel pull over fine leg for maximum - his 100th in the IPL.
First player to smash this milestone for #DelhiCapitals 💙
— Delhi Capitals (Tweeting from 🇦🇪) (@DelhiCapitals) October 24, 2020
Kya tod batsman hai yaar @RishabhPant17 💥#KKRvDC #Dream11IPL #YehHaiNayiDilli pic.twitter.com/JLzqn3vZWP
However, that was the last boundary that came from the powerplay as we ended the six overs with the same score KKR did in theirs - 36/2.
The early wickets had forced Iyer and Pant into consolidation mode as the run rates shot up quickly. The five overs after the powerplay yielded 40 runs with the duo sharing the four boundaries that came during the period.
Alas, we lost Pant a couple of deliveries later for 27. That wicket triggered a collapse of sorts as we saw Hetmyer and Iyer depart off consecutive deliveries 12 balls after Pant’s wicket. We lost our all-rounders Stoinis and Axar Patel too in quick succession in the 16th over. The scorecard didn’t look a pretty sight with Iyer’s 47 off 38 the only real contribution.
What stood out was the fact that mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy bested our entire middle-order, numbers 3 through 7. The victims of Varun’s and IPL 2020’s first fifer - Iyer, Pant, Hetmyer, Stoinis and Axar. A Man of the Match performance indeed.
With just four wickets in hand in the last four overs and 83 runs left to get, the hopes were dwindling. The lower order mustered 23 as we succumbed to a 59-run heartbreak at a venue where we’ve lost three in three.
Time to iron out a couple of areas on the drawing board.
Brief Scores
Kolkata Knight Riders 194/6 (Nitish Rana 81 off 53, Sunil Narine 64 off 32, Anrich Nortje 2/27, Kagiso Rabada 2/33); Delhi Capitals (Shreyas Iyer 47 off 38, Rishabh Pant 27 off 33, Varun Chakravarthy 5/20, Pat Cummins 3/33)
KKR vs DC in 50 Words
Nortje and Rabada pegged KKR back with 3 wickets between them, but Rana and Narine turned the tables with a fiery counter-attack. Chasing 195, a bad day at the office kept getting worse as we suffered a 59-run defeat. The curse of Abu Dhabi hasn’t been lifted yet.
Narine, Rana’s Counter-Attack Shifts Momentum
The spin of the coin went our way and Shreyas Iyer decided to bowl first, citing the grass on the pitch that our pacers can exploit as one of the reasons. Shubman Gill got a couple of boundaries away in the first over of the game off Tushar, but the returning Nortje got rid of the opener in the very next over to pick up yet another wicket in the powerplay.
A largely quiet period with the field restrictions on ended on an even sweeter note as Anrich Nortje bowled the perfect yorker at searing pace to hit the timber behind Tripathi.
View this post on Instagram
The scoreboard that read 36/2 at the end of first six, moved only to 42 before Rabada struck to send Karthik back to the dugout. Surprisingly, Sunil Narine walked in at number 5 and immediately took the attack to us. Ashwin and Deshpande gave away three fours and six in the ninth and tenth over, with Narine scoring four of those boundaries. The Rana-Narine duo were upping the ante despite the loss of wickets.
Both the southpaws scored at least two boundaries in overs 9 through 12, a time when the run rate usually takes a downward dip. The left-handers didn’t just keep the left-arm orthodox bowler Axar Patel out of the attack, but also took a liking to Ashwin, Stoinis and Tushar.
After having struggled at number 3 in the last few innings, Nitish Rana was enjoying his promotion to the top of the order. He brought up his fifty off 35 balls at the end of the 13th with a streaky boundary through the vacant slips.
From 33 off 17, Sunil Narine hit a few meaty blows to go past Nitish Rana’s score. At the end of the 15th over, KKR were on 142/3 with Nitish Rana on 56* off 38 and Sunil Narine on 57* off 26. Both of them had taken the game by the scruff of the neck and turned it around.
Finally, Rabada had Narine mistime a pull to depart for 64 off 32. With a strike rate of a flat 200, he had done his job and done it exceptionally well.
Eoin Morgan needed no sighters and picked up a boundary off his second ball. He went on to score another four and six in his cameo, while Rana added three more to his fours column to take his score to 81. Both of them were dismissed off successive deliveries at the end of the innings. At the half, the Knights would have been the happier group with a total of 194/6 on the board. The 115-run stand between Rana and Narine had turned the tables, and our batsmen had their task cut out.
A Bad Day at the Office
It was a horror start to the chase as Ajinkya Rahane was trapped by Pat Cummins in front of the stumps on the very first ball. Shreyas Iyer walked in and immediately got a boundary away, the only runs from the opening over.
The in-form man, Shikhar Dhawan got one ball to the fence before he too fell victim to Pat Cummins’ consistency. The ball to Shikhar in particular was a peach, going past the left-hander’s defences to hit the off stump.
Iyer made the most of the few bad balls that came our way with two fine flicks to the ropes off Nagarkoti. Rishabh Pant brought out a trademark swivel pull over fine leg for maximum - his 100th in the IPL.
First player to smash this milestone for #DelhiCapitals 💙
— Delhi Capitals (Tweeting from 🇦🇪) (@DelhiCapitals) October 24, 2020
Kya tod batsman hai yaar @RishabhPant17 💥#KKRvDC #Dream11IPL #YehHaiNayiDilli pic.twitter.com/JLzqn3vZWP
However, that was the last boundary that came from the powerplay as we ended the six overs with the same score KKR did in theirs - 36/2.
The early wickets had forced Iyer and Pant into consolidation mode as the run rates shot up quickly. The five overs after the powerplay yielded 40 runs with the duo sharing the four boundaries that came during the period.
Alas, we lost Pant a couple of deliveries later for 27. That wicket triggered a collapse of sorts as we saw Hetmyer and Iyer depart off consecutive deliveries 12 balls after Pant’s wicket. We lost our all-rounders Stoinis and Axar Patel too in quick succession in the 16th over. The scorecard didn’t look a pretty sight with Iyer’s 47 off 38 the only real contribution.
What stood out was the fact that mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy bested our entire middle-order, numbers 3 through 7. The victims of Varun’s and IPL 2020’s first fifer - Iyer, Pant, Hetmyer, Stoinis and Axar. A Man of the Match performance indeed.
With just four wickets in hand in the last four overs and 83 runs left to get, the hopes were dwindling. The lower order mustered 23 as we succumbed to a 59-run heartbreak at a venue where we’ve lost three in three.
Time to iron out a couple of areas on the drawing board.
Brief Scores
Kolkata Knight Riders 194/6 (Nitish Rana 81 off 53, Sunil Narine 64 off 32, Anrich Nortje 2/27, Kagiso Rabada 2/33); Delhi Capitals (Shreyas Iyer 47 off 38, Rishabh Pant 27 off 33, Varun Chakravarthy 5/20, Pat Cummins 3/33)
