Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje took two wickets apiece but could not prevent a crushing 59-run defeat for the Delhi Capitals by the Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
KKR were still reeling from Wednesday’s heavy defeat by RCB and it looked like they would replicate that performance, as Anrich Nortje sent Shubman Gill packing in the second over of the match.
Nortje bagged the second wicket as well when he cleaned up Rahul Tripathi for 13 as KKR finished the powerplay overs on 36-2.
KKR slumped to 42-3 when Rabada found Dinesh Karthik’s edge and it looked like Kolkata were facing another below-par score.
That wasn’t to be, though, as Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine smashed the bowlers to all parts of the ground in a magnificent 115-run partnership.
Rabada finally broke the stand as he had Narine caught for 64 at square leg. Eoin Morgan joied Rana at the crease and the pair scored 37 runs before losing their wickets with the final two deliveries of the innings. KKR finished on a huge 194-6.
Delhi’s chase got off to the worst possible start as Pat Cummins trapped Ajinkya Rahane in front with the first ball of the innings. There was no heroics from Shikhar Dhawan this time either as he was cleaned up by Cummins to leave Delhi on 13-2.
A 63-run partnership between Shreyas Iyer and Risbah Pant gave DC a glimmer of hope, but a devastating 5-20 spell by Varun Chakravarthy diminished all hopes of a DC victory.
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