As expected, we have witnessed a high scoring game in Sharjah tonight between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders. It was yet another thriller as Kolkata almost reached a total of 228 posted by Delhi. They lost the match only by 18 runs. Earlier in the match, Shreyas Iyer (88*), Prithvi Shaw (66), Rishab Pant (38) and Shikhar Dhawan (26) helped Delhi to reach such a big score. For Kolkata, it was Nitish Rana (58), Eoin Morgan (44) and Rahul Tripathi (36) who tried hard to win the match for their team.
After winning the toss, Kolkata Knight Riders opted to bowl first. Delhi Capitals banked on this decision and they got a good start from their openers Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan. Both of them started smacking boundaries right from the beginning. They made a partnership of 56 runs for the first wicket. In the sixth over, Varun Chakravarthy broke this partnership by dismissing Dhawan. That didn’t affect Shaw as the young man played his natural game and scored a stunning half-century. He got good support from captain Shreyas Iyer. Both of them made a 73-run stand for the second wicket. Then, Shaw was dismissed by Nagarkoti. Later, Iyer anchored the innings and got good support from Pant. They successfully took the score past 200. During the death overs, Pant and Stoinis got out but Shreyas remained unbeaten. With his stunning innings, Delhi scored 228/4 in 20 overs.
Kolkata looked like it was never in this chase right from the beginning. Opener Sunil Narine got out right in the second over. Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana made good use of power play and scored some runs. But Gill fell right after the power play. Russel came and went in no time. Rana tried to settle the score with the help of Dinesh Karthik. But his effort went in vain once he got out after completing his half-century. Harshal Patel got the wickets of Rana and Karthik in the consecutive balls and almost sealed the victory for DC. It was Morgan and Rahul Tripathi who brought back KKR in the game. They made a 78-run stand for the seventh wicket but failed to take their team to the victory. Finally, KKR ended their innings at 210/8.
Scorecard:
Delhi Capitals: 228/4 (S Iyer 88*, P Shaw 66, A Russel 2/29)
Kolkata Knight Riders: 210/8 (N Rana 58, E Morgan 44, A Nortje 3/33)