Watch cricket video highlights between Kolkata Knight Riders vs Delhi Capitals. Indian Premier League 2024 sixteenth match, played at Visakhapatnam.
Sunrisers Hyderabad broke the record for the highest IPL score last Wednesday with a 277. A raiding Kolkata Knight Riders batting squad nearly destroyed what should have been a once-in-a-decade effort tonight in Visakhapatnam. In the Twenty20s, Sunil Narine amassed his greatest-ever score of 85 off 39. Angkrish Raghuvanshi, making his debut, equaled him with 54 off 27, and Andre Russell completed the picture with 41 off 19.
Although the record was not surpassed by Ishant Sharma’s blistering yorker to dismiss Russell in the final over, KKR’s 272 was more than enough to secure a comfortable victory (by 106 runs) and go up to the top of the table with Rajasthan Royals. In a season where they are projecting themselves as championship contenders, KKR checked off another box when they took four wickets in the powerplay, two for Vaibhav Arora and one each for Mitchell Starc.
Early swing from Khaleel Ahmed and Ishant Sharma helped the Capitals win the last game in Vizag. Here, however, maybe as a result of Narine’s presence, they both began rather short of a length. Khaleel pitched up one ball, which swung to defeat Narine.
Though it may sound absurd now, Narine needed six balls to hit the target. Narine had been kept silent by the Capitals, but had they lost the opportunity to attempt to get him out? Soon after, there would be another opportunity for a brief delivery, but neither Rishabh Pant nor Ishant Sharma saw the danger. No review, no appeal.
By then, Narine and Phil Salt had started working, but if the Capitals had listened to Mitchell Marsh and done a review, Narine might still have been acquired for 24 off 13. However, reviews weren’t the only thing they were doing incorrectly. The ball had already stopped swinging, they continued providing Narine room, and when they went short, they didn’t get it high enough.
In the fifth over, Anrich Nortje removed Salt from the game, but Raghuvanshi—who had been tutored by KKR’s Abhishek Nayar since he was eleven years old—stroked out and hit fours off the first two balls he faced. Although Mukesh Kumar is hardly an express, his injury has made DC even less of a danger at speed. In the final over of the powerplay, Narine took advantage of Rasikh Salam’s medium-pace and hammered him for three fours and a six to reach his half-century in just twenty-one balls. They had the best powerplay score of any team in the IPL 2024, going 88 for 1.
DC was relieved for a single over towards the end of the powerplay when Sumit Kumar bowled, but Narine put an end to any hopes of attack variation by smashing two sixes off Axar Patel, who would not bowl again. In response, Raghuvanshi reverse-pulled over the short third for a six. Their 10-over score of 135 for 1 was the third-highest in the IPL; all three have occurred this season.
In the end, Marsh’s short ball proved to be more effective than Narine’s, but it took more than one short ball to win. He continued to shift pace when bowling outside off, short and wide. Despite this, Narine ended up hitting a boundary every two and a half balls, and the wicket was taken too late. Russell entered the game at the appropriate time in the 13th over, punishing the samey attack. Despite having right-hand batsmen at the wicket, the Capitals did not return to spin, and Nortje was the only player to provide the batters a natural obstacle.
Russell proved too excellent for the others, while Rinku Singh got the better of Nortje, taking 25 off the 19th over, when Nortje began the over with one less fielder on the fence due to a low over-rate.
Then, Ishant delivered a stunning play that made Russell himself applaud and kept the Capitals from going down in history.
Arora, one of the two tall local fast bowlers in the KKR lineup, entered as the Impact Player and was quickly on the upswing. But it was more than simply swing. He confused it with precise bouncers. Before Abhishek Porel top-edged a bouncer, Prithvi Shaw was taken out by the inswinger.
Conversely, Starc handled his Australian teammates, with Marsh being caught attempting a square drive and Warner continuing play after slogging him for a six. After his eight overs in the first two matches went for a hundred runs, these were his first wickets in the IPL.
Even batting for net run rate would need risk-taking and hard hitting at 33 for 4 in the fifth over. Pant and Tristan Stubbs were able to score quickly for a spell. club fifties were never going to be enough to prevent KKR from winning three games in a row, marking the first time in club history that they had begun a season with three wins in a row. Pant’s comeback from a potentially fatal injury was particularly encouraging.
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