It was the start provided by the Delhi Capitals' (DC) openers that literally ended the Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) challenge at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
Prithvi Shaw and David Warner made a mockery of the strong KKR bowling unit after Shreyas Iyer won the toss and put the rivals in to bat. For the first time this season, KKR failed to get early breakthroughs as the Shaw-Warner duo stitched together a 93-run opening-wicket stand.
Although KKR did pull things back a bit in the middle overs, Shardul Thakur (29* off 11 balls) and Axar Patel (22* off 14 balls) added 49 runs off just 3.2 overs in the end to help DC put up 215 for 5, the highest total in this IPL so far.
That was enough for the Rishabh Pant-led side to get back on winning ways, recording a 44-run victory after bowling out KKR for 171 in 19.4 overs.
It was a night to cherish for Kuldeep Yadav too. The Chinaman bowler who joined KKR as an uncapped player way back in 2014, fell out of favour with the franchise featuring in only five matches last season and nine in the season before that.
The UP spinner, released by KKR before the last IPL auction, later claimed that that communication has been “weak” between him and the KKR management. He answered them well with a match-winning 4 for 35 to destroy the KKR backbone.
Left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed, making a return in place of Anrich Nortje, finished with three for 25. However, the Shah Rukh Khan co-owned franchise faltered early, losing both their openers Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer inside the Powerplay.
Perhaps they could have tried out Sunil Narine in the role of a pinch-hitter, opening the innings as Rahane struggled to get going while Venkatesh perished going for a big shot.
Skipper Shreyas played a lone hand keeping KKR in the game for a while hitting a 33- ball 54 till the former DC skipper was stumped by Pant off Kuldeep. The task proved so tall that even Andre Russell and Pat Cummins could not handle it.
The way DC openers set the stage on fire right from the word go that Shreyas was forced to use seven bowlers in the first eight overs, even bringing in his trusted spinning duo of Narine and Varun Chakravarthy early on as DC raced to 50 runs in just four overs.
Chakravarthy finally got the breakthrough, getting one to come in through Shaw’s defence to dislodge his leg stump. The opener hit seven fours and two sixes in his 29-ball 51.
Pant, promoting himself up the order not to let the tempo go down, made his intentions clear early by lifting Chakravarthy over mid-wicket for a six and followed it up with a reverse sweep four. Warner got two more fours as Chakaravarthy went for 24 runs in his third over.
Warner brought up his 50 off 35 balls hitting Russell for a six over long-on. But DC lost their skipper in the same over as the wicketkeeper-batter failed to keep a short one down to be caught by Umesh Yadav at backward point.
DC lost three quick wickets after that before a late flourish took them to a position of power.
