A fine all-round show helped Delhi Capitals register their maiden win of IPL 2023, as they defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by four wickets. In a low-scoring game, Delhi overhauled the target of 128 with just four balls to spare. Check out our takeaways from the game.
The Anrich Nortje factor
Despite a few good performances in the slog, Nortje had a rather quiet start to his IPL campaign. However, on a wicket that offered some variable bounce, he pounded the deck and made a difference upfront. In the fourth over, he dismissed the in-form Venkatesh Iyer with a short delivery that was banged hard into the pitch. The result of Nortje bending his back was the ball hitting higher up on the splice as Iyer spooned a catch to the ever-agile Mitchell Marsh at slip.
Ishant Sharma, the veteran who had picked up just one wicket in the IPL since the 2019 IPL season, also found his rhythm and returned impressive figures of 2 for 19 – Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine were his two victims.
The spin twins weave a web
Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav also bowled incisively and bagged four wickets between them. Axar dismissed Mandeep Singh, with the batter hearing the death rattle after missing out on the scoop. He also removed the dangerous Rinku Singh. For KKR, Jason Roy tried to hold the innings together before falling to a sweep off Kuldeep. Kuldeep also prised out Anukul Roy in the same over to leave KKR in all sorts of trouble at 94 for 8.
Warner, Shaw and Delhi Capitals Can Turn it Around in Half an Hour
Russell’s six-hitting show
In the 17th over, Mukesh Kumar had nailed some fine yorkers while bowling at Russell. Just that Russell had the final laugh when he stayed deep in the crease, and cleared the front leg to crack three sixes in a row off Mukesh in the final over. The key point to note about Russell’s pyrotechnics was the stable base and mobility in the hips, which in turn allowed him to transfer the power into the shot. Mukesh eventually worked out a good plan by attempting the wide yorker, and then pulled his length back to keep Russell to just a single run off the last two balls of the innings.
David Warner leads from the front
Warner did make some fine contributions in some of the earlier games of the tournament, but his strike-rate was on the lower side. On a rather balmy night in Delhi, he started his innings on the right note by essaying his signature shot – the pull – while facing Umesh Yadav. He then collected a couple of fours off Kulwant Khejroliya. When Russell was introduced into the attack, he once again nailed the pull to near-perfection. Warner was at his very best when he took on Sunil Narine, pulling, flat-batting and sweeping him to the boundary hoardings. By the time he fell to Varun Chakravarthy, Delhi needed just 35 more.
A few late jitters
With the experienced Manish Pandey at the crease, Delhi seemed to be in cruise control. But when he chipped one straight to long-on and Nitish Rana then accounted for the scalp of Hakim Khan, Delhi were in a spot of bother at 111-6 in the 17th over. The calm Axar, though, pinched singles and twos and took the side home in the company of Lalit Yadav. Meanwhile, Rana finished with figures of 2 for 17 off four overs.
A photo-frame that went viral
In the 15th over, when Umesh Yadav walked out to face the hat-trick ball from Kuldeep Yadav, the bowler had a slip, gully and leg-slip in place. As Kuldeep got ready to bowl at Umesh, one just had a glimpse at Russell at the bowler’s end. He had his back to Umesh and his eyes were looking in the general direction of short mid-on. Perhaps he was doing a bit of practice. Whatever it was, the image captured the imagination of the fans.