Delhi Daredevils hosted the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Feroz Shah Kotla for the 26th match of the IPL 2018. Delhi Daredevils, who were lingering at the bottom of the points table, hoped for a better outing against the fourth-placed KKR.
Shreyas Iyer made his captaincy debut for DD. KKR captain Dinesh Karthik won the toss and decided to field. DD team management left out their former captain Gautam Gambhir from the playing XI and got off to a good start batting first.
Though Colin Munro got out for 33 off 18 balls, Prithvi Shaw hit his first T20 fifty and was looking good. Iyer and Shaw added 68 runs for the 2nd wicket, to stabilize the innings. But Chawla ended his innings for 62 off 44 balls with 7 fours and 2 sixes and Rishabh Pant followed him back to the hut on his first ball, as Russell had him caught behind for a first ball.
At 129/3, Iyer and Maxwell got together for a blazing partnership of 73 runs. Maxwell hit 27 off 18 balls with 2 sixes and 1 four. But it was captain Iyer who shined brightly, as he scored 93* in 40 balls with 3 fours and 10 sixes. Delhi Daredevils managed to score 219/4 in 20 overs.
KKR bowlers were carted to all parts of the ground with Mavi going for 58 runs for his one wicket and Johnson going for 42 runs. Andre Russell was the pick of the bowlers with 1/28.
Needing 220 to win the match, KKR needed a good start, but Lynn (5), Uthappa (1) and Rana (8) got out early. Narine hit some lusty blows for 29 in 9 balls with 3 sixes and 1 four, before Boult got him. Captain Karthik (18) and young Shubman Gill (37 off 29 balls) then came together, to repair the KKR innings.
Andre Russell (44 off 30 balls; 3x4s, 4x6s) tried to get KKR closer to the target with some lusty blows but ultimately was castled by Avesh Khan.
Amit Mishra, who wasn’t amongst the wickets initially, was the best DD bowler of the night with 2/23 in four overs. Avesh Khan (2/29) and Liam Plunkett also performed wonderfully well.
KKR was restricted to 164/9 in 20 overs, as DD registered their second win of IPL 2018 by 55 runs.
BRIEF SCORES:
DD 219/4 (S IYER 93*; A RUSSELL 1/28) beat KKR 164/9 (A RUSSELL 44; A MISHRA 2/23) by 55 runs
