Delhi Capitals (DC) all-rounder Shardul Thakur produced a stunning effort to grab a difficult catch running to dismiss Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) opener Ajinkya Rahane. Thakur has had a good outing so far in this match, scoring valuable runs in the death overs.
Chasing a mammoth total of 216 runs, Venkatesh Iyer went berserk from the word go. He struck two sixes and a boundary before holing out to the deep square leg fielder.
The incident took place in the 5th over of the match. Rahane looked to go big against Khaleel Ahmed, playing across the line against this back of a length delivery and miscues it towards long-on.
Shardul Thakur sprints back from mid-on and although he fumbled on a couple of occasions, he managed to hold on to the catch eventually. It was a terrific catch from Shardul that ended Ajinkya Rahane’s sorrow stay in the middle.
Watch the clip here:
Reeling at 38/2, the onus will now be on Kolkata Knight Riders captain Shreyas Iyer to play a match-winning knock if they have to keep the winning momentum going. They have a couple of big hitters in Andre Russell and Pat Cummins in their ranks but a lot will depend on how Iyer fares in the match.
Delhi Capitals post 215 riding on Warner, Shaw half-centuries
Asked to bat first, David Warner and Prithvi Shaw set the tone, while Rishabh Pant continued the onslaught to decimate the KKR bowlers. Only Sunil Narine held his own, while the others all got belted around.
However, they did stage a mini fight-back when DC fell from 148/1 to 166/5 with 20 balls still left. KKR would have wanted to keep the score to less than 200 but Shardul Thakur and Axar Patel had other ideas. They accumulated 39 runs off the last 12 balls, with Umesh Yadav and Pat Cummins going the distance.
It will take a monumental effort from Kolkata batters to chase down the total.
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