Kolkata's hopes remain alive with the win

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Delhi Capitals by 14 runs on the strength of deadly bowling by Sunil Narine and Varun Chakraborty. Defending champions KKR, who came to bat first after losing the toss, scored 204 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 20 overs, thanks to Angkrish Raghuvanshi's brilliant innings of 44 runs. In reply, Delhi could score 190 runs for the loss of nine wickets in the stipulated overs and lost the second consecutive match. For KKR, Narine took three wickets and Varun took two wickets, while Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora and Andre Russell got one wicket each.

Delhi's third defeat away from home

Delhi has played a total of four matches at home so far this season. They lost three of these matches while they won one in the super over. On the other hand, outside home, Akshar Patel's team won five out of six matches while they lost one. With this win on Tuesday, Kolkata has kept its hopes of playoffs alive. They have nine points in their account and their net run rate has become 0.271. On the other hand, Delhi is in fourth place with 12 points and a net run rate of 0.362.

Delhi innings

Delhi started chasing the target with a jolt. Anukul Roy got Abhishek Porel caught by Russell in the very first over. He could score just four runs. After this, Karun Nair, who came at number three and four, could score 15 runs and KL Rahul could score seven runs. 

Faf du Plessis was joined by captain Akshar Patel for the fourth wicket. There was a partnership of 76 runs in 42 balls between the two. Narine made Akshar his victim. He was dismissed after scoring 43 runs with the help of four fours and three sixes. At the same time, Faf du Plessis completed his second fifty of this season in 31 balls. He returned to the pavilion after scoring 62 runs in 45 balls. Vipraaj Nigam scored 38 runs for Delhi. However, he could not make his team win. Apart from him, Tristan Stubbs scored one run, Ashutosh Sharma scored seven runs and Mitchell Starc was dismissed without opening the account. At the same time, Dushmantha Chameera and Kuldeep Yadav remained unbeaten after scoring two and one run respectively.

Kolkata innings

In this match, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Sunil Narine gave Delhi a good start. There was a 48-run partnership for the first wicket between the two. Starc made Gurbaz his victim. He was dismissed after scoring 26 runs in 12 balls with the help of five fours and a six. After this, Vipraj Nigam dismissed Sunil Narine LBW. He returned to the pavilion after scoring 27 runs. 

Ajinkya Rahane, who came to bat at number three, played some good shots and managed to score 26 runs. Angkrish Raghuvanshi tried to put pressure on Delhi with Rinku Singh and made a partnership of more than 50 runs. Chameera showed Raghuvanshi the way to the pavilion. He was dismissed after scoring 44 runs in 32 balls while Rinku played a good innings of 36 runs with the help of three fours and a six. At the same time, Venkatesh Iyer's bat remained silent today. He could score only seven runs while Russell was run out after scoring 17 runs on his birthday. Rovman Powell scored five runs and Anukul Roy could not even open the account. Harshit Rana remained unbeaten without opening the account and Varun Chakraborty scored one * run. For Delhi, Mitchell Starc took three wickets while Vipraj Nigam and Akshar Patel got two wickets each. At the same time, Dushmantha Chameera took one success to his name.