Spin choke and Allen's blitz power KKR past DC
Kolkata Knight Riders' spinners strangled Delhi Capitals with a ruthless choke before Finn Allen unleashed a brutal six-hitting exhibition to power the visitors to a comfortable eight-wicket win and reignite their IPL playoff hopes here on Friday.
The spin trio of Anukul Roy (2/31), Sunil Narine (1/17) and Varun Chakravarthy (0/28), stifled Delhi's batting line-up, restricting them to a modest 142 for 8 despite a sparkling 29-ball 50 from Pathum Nissanka.
Impact substitute Allen then produced a fearless knock at the top. The Kiwi hit an astonishing 10 sixes and five fours in his unbeaten 47-ball 100 as KKR chased down the target on 14.2 overs.
The win, KKR's fourth on trot, catapulted them to seventh place while the loss, DC's seventh in 11 games this season, has all but killed their chances of making the playoffs.
Defending a below-par total, Delhi desperately searched for early breakthroughs and briefly found hope through moments of fortune.
Ajinkya Rahane was run out after the ball brushed Mitchell Starc's fingertips onto the stumps at the non-striker's end, while Angkrish Raghuvanshi was undone when the ball flicked his glove and rolled back onto the stumps.
But Allen's fearless strokeplay ensured KKR never lost sight of the chase as he dismantled the DC attack with clean hitting and aggressive intent. Earlier, if it wasn't for Ashutosh Sharma's 39 off 28 balls which was laced with three boundaries and as many sixes, DC would have struggled to even cross the 100-run mark.
KKR's pacers complemented the spinners superbly, with Kartik Tyagi (2/25), Vaibhav Arora (1/29) and Cameron Green (1/12) striking at key moments to ensure Delhi never found sustained rhythm.
Asked to bat, Nissanka (50) and KL Rahul (23) provided Delhi a fluent start, with the Sri Lankan taking the aggressive route early, striking the innings' first boundary and six.
KKR, however, showed complete faith in their spin resources from the outset, handing the ball to Roy and Narine inside the powerplay.
Though the Delhi openers negotiated the challenge well initially, the pressure steadily mounted as the spinners dried up the boundaries post the powerplay.
Once Tyagi and Green removed Rahul and Nitish Rana (8) in quick succession, KKR unleashed their spin stranglehold in full force.
Chakravarthy turned the screws with a suffocating three-run over spell, forcing the batters into riskier options.
Narine then struck immediately after returning to the attack, dismissing Sameer Rizvi, who miscued a sweep straight to deep midwicket.
Nissanka briefly resisted, bringing up his fifty with a crisp boundary through extra cover, but Roy outfoxed him off the very next delivery as the batter was stumped trying to break free.
Roy then compounded Delhi's misery by bamboozling Tristan Stubbs in the same over, triggering another collapse as DC lost four wickets in the middle overs while KKR's spinners completely strangled the innings.
Ashutosh finally broke the 38-ball boundary drought with a six. He followed it up with back-to-back boundaries to collect 16 runs off the 17th over before adding another six and a four.
