Brutal knocks from batters and a disciplined bowling attack powered Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to crush Delhi Capitals (DC) by 106 runs. For the first time in an IPL season, KKR has started with three straight wins. With a massive win, KKR climbed to the top of the table as their run rate got a major boost. Chasing a huge 273, DC was never in the game as they lost four wickets inside powerplay overs. DC skipper Rishabh Pant and Tristan Stubbs played blistering knocks of 55 and 54 respectively but those went in vain as other batters failed to score big.

Batting first, Phil Salt and Sunil Narine rained boundaries to give KKR a fiery start. Narine smashed Ishant Sharma for three sixes and two fours in the 4th over, taking KKR to 60 runs. In the same over, Pant took a DRS with just 1 second left, and the same was denied for him. If that DRS had been allowed Narine’s knock would have ended there.

Anrich Nortje came into the attack and gave the crucial breakthrough by dismissing Salt (18). Narine alongside Angkrish Raghuvanshi added 104 runs for the second wicket. Narine plundered his best in T20s, 85 off 39, while youngster Raghuvanshi matched him with 54 off 27. Power-hitting Andre Russell and Rinku Singh played a quick-fire cameo of 41 and 26 respectively, helping KKR to register the second-highest total in IPL history, 272/7 in 20 overs.

It seemed that David Warner and Prithvi Shaw started well for DC, smashing 21 runs in 1.4 overs. But KKR bowlers bounced back strong with four quick wickets. Vaibhav Arora dismissed Shaw (10) while Mitchell Starc removed dangerous Mitchell Marsh for a duck. In his next over, Arora bagged Abishek Porel for a duck. Starc then cleaned up Warner (18) to put DC under huge pressure so that they would find it difficult to make a strong comeback. KKR bowlers took regular wickets and bowled out DC for 166.