Delhi Capitals (DC) returned to winning ways in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) with a seven-wicket thrashing of Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday.
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Delhi Capitals (DC) returned to winning ways in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) with a seven-wicket thrashing of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Thursday. Set 155 to win at Ahmedabad, Shaw (82) ensured there were no hiccups in the chase. The win sees DC climb to second in the table. KKR, meanwhile, saw their play-off hopes take a serious hit. They have now lost 5 of their 7 games played and face an uphill battle for a top 4 finish.
Shaw showed massive intent from ball one itself. Facing former India U-19 teammate Shivam Mavi, he slammed six straight fours to start the second innings. KKR never really recovered from that early blow.
The boundaries didn’t stop either. By the end of the powerplay, Delhi were 67-0. Shaw was smashing the ball to all corners of the park. And KKR looked bereft of ideas.
Shaw brought up his fifty in the eighth over – he took only 18 balls to get there. By the halfway mark of the innings, DC were 95-0.
It was the 14th over by the time a wicket fall, with Shikhar Dhawan being trapped plumb by Pat Cummins. The Aussie accounted for Shaw two overs later, getting him to edge a short one to Nitish Rana at backward point.
Rishabh Pant, who played a useful cameo, holed out in the deep during the very same over. Yet it mattered not, for DC needed only 5 runs at that point.
It was up to Marcus Stoinis and Shimron Hetmyer to finish off the game. And they duly did, in the 17th over. Stoinis ran two before flicking one off the pads down to fine leg for a boundary.
Earlier, DC restricted KKR to a total of just 154 runs for the loss of six wickets, after winning the toss and opting to field. Spinners Axar Patel and Lalit Yadav made their presence felt, accounting for two wickets apiece.
While Axar accounted for the dismissals of Nitish Rana and Dinesh Karthik, Lalit sent back skipper Eoin Morgan and Sunil Narine in the same over.
Morgan and Narine were dismissed for ducks, with the poor performance of the duo leaving the KKR batting department in a state of despair.
It might well have been a total way lesser than 154, if not for a fantastic performance by West indies all-rounder Andre Russell.
Russell was the highest run-scorer for the Kolkata-based franchise. The 33-year-old smashed 45 runs off 27 deliveries, in an innings comprising of two boundaries and four sixes.
The Windies cricketer further completed 6,000 runs in the shortest format during this knock, emerging as the fastest player to record the milestone in terms of balls taken.
Today is Russell’s birthday and his performance was certainly the perfect celebration of his capabilities. The 33-year-old is the second player to score 6,000 T20 runs and pick 300 wickets after fellow all-rounder Dwayne Bravo.
Shubman Gill was the second-highest run-scorer for the Kolkata-based franchise, with 43 runs off 38 deliveries.
Shubman is well-known for his ability to smack the ball to all corners of the ground. However, he seemed to be quite nervous during this innings comprising of three boundaries and a six.
