Kolkata, April 29 (IANS). In the 47th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) played at Eden Gardens here on Monday, the opening batsmen of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) maintained their dominance and Phil Salt made an opening partnership of 79 runs by playing an inning of 68 runs in 33 balls. , which gave them a seven-wicket win over Delhi Capitals.
Salt and Sunil Narine finished the power-play at 79 without loss. Lizard Williams' first over went for 23 runs, with Phil Salt doing most of the damage. Before this, Narine hit a four on the last ball.
Lizard's wounds were further rubbed when he dismissed the English batsman on the very first ball of the second over. Khalil Ahmed's ball went high in the air, causing a reverse-cup finish as the ball bounced off his hands and onto his chest.
The slower balls provided grip on the surface for the Capitals pacers, but they did not utilize it very well, giving both the batsmen the chance to fire their weapons on several occasions. Salt crossed the half-century mark in 26 balls during the 18-run sixth over bowled by Khalil Ahmed.
On the first ball bowled by Axar Patel after the power-play, Narine looked for a big hit with turn and dismissed it to deep midwicket for 15 runs. In the very next over, Akshar dropped Salt's off stump on the score of 68, as the new pair of batsmen Shreyas Iyer and Rinku Singh came in the middle. Rinku Singh, who got a chance to chase the target, was out after scoring 11 runs on the run-up ball. Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer continued to tick on the board and the duo added 57 runs for the fourth wicket, which was enough to defeat the visitors by seven wickets.
Earlier, Kuldeep Yadav's brilliant inning of 35 took Delhi Capitals to 153/9 after Varun Chakravarthy bowled a brilliant spell of 3-16 for KKR.
This pitch at Eden has not been like the pitches earlier in the season. It seemed as if KKR had sought some more help for the spinners after their sixer-fest loss against Punjab Kings. And the pitch really suits their two mystery spinners.
After the initial shock, DC captain Rishabh Pant and Abhishek Porel added 31 runs for the fourth wicket, but after their partnership ended, wickets kept falling from the other side. Porel (18), Axar Patel (15), Tristan Stubbs (4) and Kumar Kushagra (1) were out cheaply as DC slumped from 67/3 in nine overs to 101/6 in 13 overs. Pant, after an entertaining innings of 27 runs in 20 balls, fell victim to Chakravarthy while attempting a slog-sweep towards deep midwicket and the ball went straight into the air.
Kuldeep Yadav's brilliant inning of 35 runs in 29 balls with the help of five fours and one six took Delhi Capitals to 153/9 in 20 overs. Yadav was brought into the bowling attack late and his spell ended at 34 runs without any wicket.
Brief Score:
Delhi Capitals 153/9 in 20 overs (Kuldeep Yadav 35 not out, Rishabh Pant 27; Varun Chakravarthy 3-16, Harshit Rana 2-28) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 157/3 in 16.3 overs (Phil Salt 68, Shreyas Iyer 33) ; Axar Patel 2-25; Lizaad Williams 1-38) by seven wickets
–IANS
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