A target of 155 might have been tricky, especially on the humongous ground at Motera. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) do have a formidable bowling attack, to boot. But Prithvi Shaw took no heed of that as he bludgeoned his way to a 41-ball 82. The carnage included 11 fours and 3 sixes, pushed Shikhar Dhawan’s effort (46 in 47 balls) pale into the background, and propelled Delhi Capitals (DC) to a win with 21 balls to spare in Match 25 of the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL).
Delhi are now second on the points table, while Kolkata managed to cling on to the fifth place.
One would expect an opening batter to take a couple of balls before switching to fourth gear. Not Shaw. Shivam Mavi began with a wide. Shaw then hit each of the six legitimate balls for a four – through extra cover, mid-wicket, cover point, yet again cover point, backward point, and extra cover. The stroke-play was as delightful as savage.
The target, never daunting, looked even smaller after the first over, but Shaw refused to stop. Delhi raced to 66 without loss after five overs; Shaw had 48 of these runs, off just 15 balls. The fifty took him 18 balls – the joint second-fastest by a Delhi batter.
At one point Shaw needed 18 to reach his hundred, while Delhi needed 29. But Pat Cummins (3-24) trapped Dhawan leg before, and Rishabh Pant hit a four and a six off Prasidh Krishna to keep Shaw out of the hunt. It would not have mattered, for Cummins had Shaw caught at point anyway. He also had Pant at long-on, but all that came too late in the night.
Earlier, the Knight Riders put up 154/6. They looked more proactive in the Powerplay overs than the Rajasthan match, but even then, all they managed was 45/1. Not for the first time, Shubman Gill (43 in 38) failed to accelerate.
But KKR’s real setback came at a juncture when they, having built a platform, were just about to launch their onslaught. At 69/1 after 9.2 overs, they might have been eyeing a total of 180, or even 200. Instead, they surrendered to Lalit Yadav, who first caught Rahul Tripathi off Marcus Stoinis, then had Eoin Morgan caught at long-off, then bowled Sunil Narine. Kolkata lost 3 for 6 in 8 balls. And then Avesh Khan, Delhi’s leading wicket-taker of the season, tricked Gill with a slower ball.
Dinesh Karthik hit Axar Patel for a six but fell next ball, trying to reverse sweep and missing. It took a late-innings surge by Andre Russell (45 not out in 27 balls) for Kolkata to reach that total. They scored 30 off the last 10 balls, of which Russell got 23 in 6. But all that came too late.
Brief scores
Kolkata Knight Riders 154/6 in 20 overs (Andre Russell 45*; Lalit Yadav 2-13) lost to Delhi Capitals 156/3 in 16.3 overs (Prithvi Shaw 82; Pat Cummins 3-24) by 7 wickets with 21 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Prithvi Shaw.