Kolkata Knight Riders continued their impressive late-season revival with a stunning eight-wicket victory over Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Friday, thanks to a superb performance followed by a stunning IPL century from Finn Allen.
The win was KKR’s fourth in a row and kept their playoff hopes alive, while Delhi slumped to their seventh defeat in 11 matches.
After opting to bowl first, the Kolkata bowling gave Delhi a margin of 142/8 in a place where the hosts had posted 264 this season. While Pathum Nissanka gave Delhi a good start with 50 runs off 29 balls, the innings gradually lost momentum once the KKR spinners came into play.
Nissanka and KL Rahul added fluently during the powerplay, taking Delhi to 49 while attacking anything loose. Nissanka looked particularly confident, finding boundaries on the sidelines and clearing the ropes with ease.
However, KKR’s decision to rely on spin from the start proved decisive. Sunil Narine and Anukul Roy were introduced early and quickly brought the batting down with straight lines and subtle variations.
The breakthrough finally came when Kartik Tyagi dismissed Rahul for 23 with a slow delivery that forced an aerial error. Soon after, Cameron Green removed Nitish Rana at a low rate to leave Delhi under pressure.
From there, KKR’s spin trio tightened their grip completely. Varun Chakaravarthy bowled a poor spell that stopped the boundaries, forcing the Delhi batsmen to shoot in danger. Narine then struck by removing Sameer Rizvi, who mistimed a sweep and went straight to the deep.
Nissanka resisted briefly and reached his half-century with a cool boundary at extra cover, but Roy dismissed him quickly after the epic move, sending him off stump for a knock. Roy then trapped Tristan Stubbs at the same spot as Delhi lost wickets in bunches again.
Had it not been for Ashutosh Sharma’s 39 off 28 runs, including three fours and three sixes, Delhi might have struggled to cross even 120 runs.
Chasing 143, Delhi managed to create some early moments of excitement. Ajinkya Rahane suffered a dramatic run-out after the ball hit Mitchell Starc’s fingers on the stumps at the non-striker’s end. Soon after, Angkrish Raghuvanshi was dismissed in a tragic way when the ball grazed his glove before returning to the stumps.
But once Allen settled down, the chase quickly became one-sided.
The New Zealand batsmen unleashed a six-hitting masterclass, dismantling the Delhi attack fearlessly with a stroke. He dominated both pace and spin, hitting 10 sixes and five boundaries in a 47-ball unbeaten 100.
Allen ended up sealing the match in spectacular fashion as KKR chased down the target in just 14.2 overs, completing another big win in their impressive turnaround this season.
