The Shreyas Iyer-led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team took on the Rishabh Pant-led Delhi Capitals (DC) in the 47th match of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) on Monday, April 29 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Kolkata Knight Riders lost the toss but got what they wanted when they bowled first. KKR players did an incredible job in the match and did not let any Delhi Capitals batsman settle in the middle. Varun Chakravarthy was the top performer with figures of 3/16, while KKR restricted DC to 153/9. Vaibhav Arora (2), Harshit Rana (2), Sunil Narine (1) and Mitchell Starc (1) also picked up wickets for the team.
Chasing the target, Phil Salt (68) and Sunil Narine (15) took the team flying. Rinku Singh (11) rose to the number 3 spot and failed to score big points. However, KKR completed the chase easily as Shreyas Iyer (33) and Venkatesh Iyer (26) batted brilliantly. KKR won the match by 7 wickets with 21 balls remaining.
At the post-match presentation ceremony, Shreyas Iyer said that the pitch for the match against Delhi Capitals was a surprise for them as they are used to pitches that produce high-scoring games. Shreyas Iyer said:
“[on if the pitch would play this way?] You are welcome. Considering the last matches, 200 was an even score. After the powerplay, the pitch started helping the spinners, it was tacky. “We have a clear idea of how it works and how to address stickiness.”
Talking about KKR’s first few matches, Shreyas Iyer said that Sunil Narine does not attend the team meetings but Phil Salt is always there and also gives his inputs. Shreyas Iyer also advised Narine to continue skipping team meetings. He said:
“Narine still doesn’t attend those meetings, but Salt is always there, he gives us his input and it’s a blessing to see him come and do all this. [if Narine attends meetings] He does not do it. He wouldn’t recommend that he come either.”
Shreyas Iyer finally spoke about Man of the Match award winner Varun Chakravarthy for his heroism and said:
“[on Chakaravarthy] He hasn’t been at his best in recent games. She has been assessing the wicket and giving us opinions. The way she showed up today was simply brilliant. [qualification] We’ve always been watching him, even since the first game. The mentality is to qualify as soon as possible. “Let’s just work on our ethics and work processes, I don’t want to look at the points table.”
Unlike The DC Clash, KKR Bowlers players had a nightmare outing in their last match
The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bowling unit had an absolutely nightmare outing in the team’s previous match against the Sam Curran-led Punjab Kings (PBKS) on April 26 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
The KKR batting unit fired on all cylinders and bowled the PBKS bowlers for a mammoth total of 261/6, which was not a total that could be chased – so thought the fans and pundits who witnessed the game.
However, Punjab Kings did the unthinkable, proved everyone’s perception wrong and also pulled off a miraculous chase in just 18.4 overs. It took the attacking brand of cricket from Punjab Kings’ top 4 in Jonny Bairstow (108*), Prabhsimran Singh (54), Rilee Rossouw (26) and Shashank Singh (68*) to chase down the target and register an 8-wicket victory . This was the biggest ever run chase in the history of T20 cricket and possibly the biggest ever too.
Kolkata Knight Riders used 7 bowling options in the match as Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Dushmantha Chameera, Andre Russell and Ramandeep Singh spinners. However, only Sunil Narine picked a wicket and gave away runs at an incredible economy of 6.00 in a high-scoring thriller.