KKR had been unbeaten so far. Andre Russell was in beast mode smashing everything bowled at him into stands. KKR’s spin was at their best at Eden Gardens. It was obvious that Delhi Capitals needed something special to overcome all this. And they had it. In the form of Prithvi Shaw’s genius 99 off 55 balls they negated KKR’s batting might and then in the form of Kagiso Rabada’s jaw-dropping yorkers they overcome Russell’s power.
Rabada outdones Russell with a sensational yorker
With ten to defend in the super over, Russell flicked Rabada for a four on the first ball. But Rabada made a strong comeback by nailing a yorker on the second ball and went one step further as he dismantled Russell’s middle stump on the third ball. With Russell gone, KKR lost the track and Delhi won the super over.
Shaw’s 99 runs highlight Delhi’s strong show
Before Rabada’s magic, Prithvi Shaw carried Delhi in the chase of 185 runs. Shaw scored a sublime and glorious 99 runs off 55 balls while Shreyas Iyer manged 46 off 32 balls.
But a gritty bowling by Kuldeep Yadav took the game in the super over as Delhi failed to score six runs in the final over and managed only five against Kuldeep.
Karthik- Russell save KKR
Before that Delhi bowlers had restricted Kolkata to 61 runs for five wickets down as Sandeep Lamichhane made a mark in his first IPL 2019 game.
Lynn failed once again and the ploy to send Nikhil Naik as opener didn’t work. Uthappa and Rana failed too.
However skipper Dinesh Karthik stepped up with a fine fifty off 32 balls but once again it was Andre Russell who provided the punch in Kolkata’s innings. The right-hand batsman cantered 62 runs off 28 balls and enabled KKR to post a respectable total on board.
And then Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep chipped in with 12 and 10 runs respectively to deliver a final blow in the death overs.
