Outstanding performance of bowlers followed by skipper David Warner’s fifty powered Delhi Capitals to trounce Kolkata Knight Riders by 4 wickets, their first win in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, in a low-scoring encounter at Arun Jaitley Stadium in the national capital on Thursday.
KKR showed mettle with bowl and took the game to the last over. For KKR, Nitish Rana led from the front and took two scalps while Varun Chakravarthy also bagged the crucial two wickets including David Warner’s dismissal. DC Captain David Warner played a match-winning knock of 57 off 51 balls. For DC, Ishant, Axar, Nortje and Kuldeep bagged two wickets respectively while Mukesh Kumar scalped one. For KKR, Jason Roy scored the highest with 43 off 39 while Andre Russell played an unbeaten crucial knock of 38 in 31 deliveries. KKR threw wickets away in the powerplay and paid the price as they could only post 127 runs on the scoreboard.
Chasing the lowest total of 127 in this year’s IPL, David Warner seemed in his natural style, hitting bowler from the start. However, Prithvi Shaw continued to disappoint with his bad form, he gave his wicket to Varun Chakravarthy scoring just 13 off 11 balls in the 5th over.
DC reached the 50-run mark with ease in 5.3 overs. By punishing Sunil Nairne’s 6th over conceding 17 runs, DC scored 61/1 after the powerplay.
KKR’s light of hope came with the dismissal of Mitchell Marsh followed by Phil Salt in the 9th and 10 overs.
Warner clinched his fourth fifty this season off 33 balls comprising ten fours. Varun with his second wicket gave a big breakthrough to KKR by clearing set-in batter Warner at 57 off 41 balls.
