Shreyas Iyer’s Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Rishabh Pant-led Delhi Capitals (DC) by 106 runs on Wednesday, April 3 in the 16th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA. VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam.
Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bat first in the match. They included Angkrish Raghuvanshi in the playing XI. Delhi Capitals also made a forced change in their playing XI as the injured Mukesh Kumar was replaced by Sumit Kumar.
The decision to bat first was great for Knight Riders as they posted a mammoth total of 272/7 on the board, which was the second highest score in the history of the league. Most of the KKR batsmen played an attacking type of cricket and the strike rate of all batsmen who scored 5 or more runs was above 150.
From the top, it was Sunil Narine who annihilated DC’s bowling unit with his sensational knock. Angkrish Raghuvanshi, 18, supported him well and surprised many with the beautiful shots of him.
Then from the middle and lower order, Andre Russell and Rinku Singh showed their power play and helped their team post a historic total. Sunil Narine (85), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (54), Andre Russell (41) and Rinku Singh (26) were the top 4 players in the batting department and on the other hand, Anrich Nortje was the best wicket-taker for DC. with a tour of 3 lands under his belt.
Defending the objective, KKR players did an excellent job and reduced the DC to 4-33. Rishabh Pant and Tristan Stubbs showed some fight but it wasn’t enough as they were bowled out for 166 to hand KKR an impressive 106-run victory.
For Knight Riders, Varun Chakravarthy and Vaibhav Arora bagged 3 wickets each, Mitchell Starc got two wickets while Sunil Narine and Andre Russell picked up one wicket each.
No, to be honest, it wasn’t like that, we thought we would reach 210-220 but 270 was the icing on the cake – Shreyas Iyer
In the post-match presentation, Shreyas Iyer said that he did not expect his team to register more than 270 runs on the board. He stated:
“No, to be honest, it wasn’t like that, we thought we would get to 210-220, but 270 was the icing on the cake. I said in a pre-match interview that Sunny’s job is to get us off to a good start, if he doesn’t get us out, he’s fine too.”
While talking about young Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer said that he was fearless and batted phenomenally. Shreyas Iyer said:
“(On Raghuvanshi) He was fearless from the first ball, his work ethic is phenomenal, the way he played his shots was pleasing to the eye. “It’s great to see all the players step up at the right time and take advantage of the opportunities.”
Shreyas Iyer spoke more about Harshit Rana, who surprisingly did not bowl a single over in the match despite being one of the best players in the team. The KKR captain said that the pacer got injured and was seen holding his shoulder in pain, which was a big blow for the Knight Riders.
“(On Harshit Rana’s injury) I don’t know either, on the field he was holding his shoulder. I’ve been in that situation before. Vaibhav Arora took crucial wickets for us, he defended us tonight,” signs Shreyas Iyer.off.