The Kolkata Knight Riders have finally risen to the occasion as they defeat table-toppers Delhi Capitals in a thumping victory at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The early onslaught by Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine in batting department whereas Varun Chakravarthy’s fiver while bowling ensured that Delhi Capitals do not get anywhere near the target of 195 runs set by Kolkata Knight Riders.
It all started at the toss as Shreyas Iyer the Delhi Capitals skipper won the toss and elected to bowl first at Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Both sides had a significant amount of changes as Delhi Capitals dropped Prithvi Shaw and Daniel Sams which meant Anrich Nortje returned to the side and also Ajinkya Rahane coming back in as an opener for the side. Whereas for Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunil Narine and Kamlesh Nagarkoti.
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Delhi Capitals Lineup Fall Prey To Varun Chakravarthy
Batting first Kolkata Knight Riders were off to a decent start though as they made a swift change to the batting order, it was Nitish Rana who opened in place of Rahul Tripathi. The change did work for Nitish Rana but not so much for Rahul Tripathi as he along with Shubman Gill were dismissed very early on in the powerplay. Followed by which Dinesh Karthik too lost his wicket in the following overs. After which it was a clear onslaught by Sunil Narine and Nitish Rana as they were involved in a hundred run partnership enough for the side to guide them to a total of 194 runs at the of 20 overs.
On the other Delhi Capitals had a horror start to the match which started from Ajinkya Rahane falling prey to Pat Cummins on the very first ball of the innings. This followed the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan as he was cleaned up by Pat Cummins, on the bank of a serious start Varun Chakaravarthy ran a riot through the Delhi Capitals line up picking up a five-wicket haul as they were restricted to a mere 135 at the end of 20 overs.
Picking Five Wickets is Surreal: Varun Chakravarthy
The man of the match of today’s game between Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals was Varun Chakravarthy for his five-wicket haul. At the post-match presentation, Varun said that whatever happened in the match was surreal since he wasn’t able to pick wickets in the last few matches but today he ended up picking five. He thanked all the people who have been part of this process as he revealed how around 2015 he wasn’t making enough as an architect which is why he ended up taking the sport seriously to meet his financial needs.
“This is surreal. The last few games I didn’t get wickets. I wanted to get one or two today, but thank god I got five. I enjoyed Shreyas Iyer’s wicket the most. I was bowling to the shorter boundary so I had to attack the stumps.”
“I want to thank my mother Hema Malini, father Vinoth Chakravarthy and fiancée Neha. And all my physios. Around 2015 when I was not making much money as an architect, I thought I will try something else when I wasn’t able to meet my needs.”
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