Kuldeep Yadav, who spent 7 years at Kolkata Knight Riders, returned to haunt his former side as his 4 wickets haul helped Delhi Capitals (DC) to a comfortable win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL. Kuldeep finished with 4 for 35 from his 4 overs as Delhi won comfortably by 44 runs in the end.
Having been put in to bat by Kolkata, Delhi got off to an excellent start through their diminutive opener Prithvi Shaw and Australian veteran David Warner as they raced to 90 at 11 runs per over. Once Shaw was dismissed after scoring his half-century, Captain Rishabh Pant kept up the scoring rate and took the side to 148 in the 13th over.
KKR made a bit of a fightback after that as they took 4 wickets for 18 runs, including the wicket of the dangerous Warner at 61. However, an explosive 49 runs partnership off 20 balls between Indian all-rounders Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur pushed Delhi to a formidable 215 off their 20 overs.
In response, Kolkata lost both their openers within the power play but they were still well in the game thanks to an excellent partnership of 69 between captain Shreyas Iyer and Nitish Rana. With plenty of big hitters to come, KKR was still in with an even chance while that partnership was in place.
However, Nitish Rana falling to part-timer Lalit Yadav opened the floodgates, and then the innings was taken over by Kuldeep. He dismissed the set Shreyas Iyer, and then quickly accounted for last game’s hero Pat Cummins and dangerous Sunil Narine. He was ably supported by the returning Khalil Ahmed who ended up with 3 for 25.
Despite losing, KKR remain on the top of the table but having played more games than anyone else. They next play Hyderabad on Friday, while Delhi will look to continue their new found winning form against Royal Challengers on Saturday.
