Shreyas Iyer-led team Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) took on Rishabh Pant-led Delhi Capitals (DC) in the 47th match of Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Monday, April 29. at.
The Kolkata Knight Riders lost the toss but got what they wanted when they bowled first. The KKR bowlers did an incredible job in the match and did not let any Delhi Capitals batsman rest in the middle. Varun Chakravarthy was the best performer with his 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 side.
Phil Salt (68) and Sunil Narine (15) chased the goal and led the team to a flyer. Rinku Singh (11) was promoted to No.3 and failed to score much. However, KKR completed the chase easily as Shreyas Iyer (33) and Venkatesh Iyer (26) fought brilliantly. KKR won the game by 7 wickets with 21 balls remaining.
Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, Shreyas Iyer said that the track for the game against Delhi Capitals was a surprise for them as they were used to the pitches where high-scoring games take place. Shreyas Iyer said:
“[on if the pitch would play this way?] Not at all. Considering the last few games, 200 was a minimum score. After the powerplay the pitch started helping the spinners, it was difficult. We have a good idea of how it plays and how we can address the stickiness.”
Talking about the KKR opening matches, Shreyas Iyer said that Sunil Narine does not attend 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 these meetings, but Salt is always there, giving us his input and it’s pure bliss to see him come and do all that.” [if Narine attends meetings] He does not do it. I wouldn’t recommend him to come either.
Shreyas Iyer finally spoke about Player of the Match award winner Varun Chakravarthy for his heroics and said:
“[on Chakaravarthy] He hasn’t been at his best in the last few games. He assessed the wicket and gave us input. The way he performed today was just great. [qualification] We’ve always looked at it, right from the first game. The mindset is to qualify as early as possible. We just work on our work ethic and our processes and don’t want to look at the points table.”
Unlike the DC Clash, the KKR Bowlers had a nightmarish performance in their last game
The bowling unit of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had an absolutely nightmarish performance in the team’s previous game against the Sam Curran-led Punjab Kings (PBKS) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on April 26.
KKR’s batting unit fired on all cylinders and demolished the PBKS bowlers to post a mammoth total of 261/6 that could not be overtaken – that was the thought of the fans and pundits watching the match.
However, the Punjab Kings did the unthinkable, proved everyone’s opinion wrong and also managed a miraculous chase in just 18.4 overs. It took the attacking class of top four cricket from the Punjab Kings in Jonny Bairstow (108*), Prabhsimran Singh (54), Rilee Rossouw (26) and Shashank Singh (68*) to chase down the target and score 8-wicket win. This was the greatest run chase of all time in the history of T20 cricket and arguably the greatest of all time.
Kolkata Knight Riders used seven bowling options in the match as Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Dushmantha Chameera, Andre Russell and Ramandeep Singh rotated their arms. However, only Sunil Narine picked a wicket and gave away runs at an incredible economy of 6.00 in a high-scoring thriller.