IPL 2021: WATCH- Rishabh Pant almost takes Dinesh Karthik’s head off with his bat

DC made 127/9 in 20 overs and KKR need to win this match to stay in contention for the playoffs.

The 40^th match of the IPL 2021 saw Delhi Capitals (DC) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) clashing in a day match in Sharjah. While DC is sitting pretty at the second spot on the points table, KKR is fourth while trying to make sure their way for playoffs qualification is smoothened.

KKR captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and chose to bowl first and his bowlers did an awesome job of keeping the explosive Delhi Capitals (DC) batting quiet on a Sharjah pitch that was difficult to score freely on.

Steve Smith playing in place of Prithvi Shaw made 39, while Shikhar Dhawan made 24 runs. Then KKR’s Sunil Narine (2/18) and Venkatesh Iyer (2/28) sending the DC middle-order back to the pavilion for cheap scores. Shreyas Iyer, Shimron Hetmyer failed to get going, while Lalit Yadav and Akshar Patel made ducks.

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Captain Rishabh Pant (39) powered through and took DC to a respectable total of 127/9 in 20 overs.

Meanwhile, KKR keeper Dinesh Karthik had a close call when Rishabh Pant almost smacked his head off with his bat in trying to move the ball away from stumps. The incident happened on the first ball of 17^th over as Pant tried to hit Varun towards the offside and the ball hit his edge and bounced up.

Pant tried to swat the ball away waved his bat forcefully and almost clipped Karthik’s helmet grill in the process. Karthik took a tumble trying to avoid the bat hit. It ended well as both the keeper-batters shook hands and smiled.

Here is the video: