Delhi Capitals kept losing wickets at regular intervals against some disciplined bowling by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on a sluggish pitch in scorching conditions and were restricted to 127/9 in an afternoon encounter in the IPL 2021 here on Tuesday.
KKR skipper Eoin Morgan won the toss and elected to field, hoping to take advantage of the sluggish track and difficult conditions. His bowlers lived up to his belief as they did not allow Delhi batters to take control of the proceedings and did not allow them to get the 150-160 runs that they were looking to put up.
This is the second time in the season that Delhi failed to hit a single six in their innings. Kolkata had bowlers coming to the fore with Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, and part-timer Venkatesh Iyer picking up two wickets each while Tim Southee had one scalp to his name.
Things looked difficult from the start as Delhi got off to a sluggish start, losing Shikhar Dhawan early.
Dhawan started by dispatching to the boundary a juicy full-toss on his pads by Sandeep Warrier and edged one behind for a boundary in Tim Southee’s first over too. However, he was the first to go as he tried to play on the up a short, wide one on the off and ended up lobbing it to Lockie Ferguson on the edge of the circle.
Shreyas Iyer joined him in the dugout as Delhi slumped to 40/2, bowled by Sunil Narine on his second delivery of the match. Iyer (1) failed to read the ball and was undecided whether to go forward or play back as the ball pitched outside off and spun back to hit the off-stump.
Smith, playing his first match in the UAE leg of IPL 2021 in place of Prithvi Shaw who is injured, struck a couple of pleasing boundaries too as he held one end up. A well-swept boundary off Sunil Narine the pick of his shots. The former Australia skipper was out soon for 39 with Delhi 77/3 in 13th over. Smith was doing well but got out trying to pick up the scoring rate. He had comically hurt himself trying to play a premeditated scoop on the legside on the bowling of Lockie Ferguson and played the ball into his inner thigh. He attempted to ugly hoick off the next delivery but was foxed by Ferguson who bowled at his usual pace and Smith just played over.
Shimron Hatmyer (4) and Lalit Yadav (0) were out in quick succession as Delhi at 90/5 lost three wickets for 13 runs. And when Axar Patel was out for a five-ball duck, they were 92/6, and the 150-160 that skipper Pant targeted at the start of the innings looked way too far.
Brief Scores:
Delhi Capitals 127/9 in 20 overs (Rishabh Pant, 39, Steve Smith 39, Lockie Ferguson 2/10, Sunil Narine 2/18) against Kolkata Knight Riders.
