KKR vs DC: Vaibhav Arora douses Hope, Salt marches against former team and Axar Patel gets LED on

What a way to wrap up a solid all-round show 💥

A commanding performance by Kolkata Knight Riders at home 💜

And that win helps them consolidate their position in the points table 🤝

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/eTZRkma6UM#TATAIPL | #KKRvDC | @KKRiders pic.twitter.com/FFBYyylTKU

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 29, 2024

Hope extinguished again

Shai Hope must hate Indian seamers. In the 2019 World Cup, he was the mute witness of a pearler from Mohammad Shami, a vicious nipbacker that whistled through the bat-and-pad gap to bowl him, one of the great deliveries of that tournament. Now, on Monday night, Hope was recipient of the other one. This time from Vaibhav Arora, who had almost exclusively dealt in inswingers until that point. But this one, delivered wider of the crease, was a peach of a leg cutter, that seamed away from off and middle line, squaring up Hope, who heard the death rattle on the off stump. Not a bad ball for Arora, someone who had nearly quit cricket as a teenager after a car accident and subsequent selection rejections, and only came back after his coach told him to get a ‘quitter’ tattoo on his forehead.

Chakravarthy 2 – Pant 0

Varun Chakravarthy tied up Rishabh Pant in some style. Unable to decipher the direction, Pant was taking his chances. First up came a ball from round the stumps that landed on middle and bounced up. Pant tried to do his lap shot on a bent knee but the extra bounce and last-instant straightening meant the ball looped off the top edge to short third man where Harshit Rana made a meal of a dolly. But Chakravarthy wasn’t done. Soon, he slipped one fuller and it was a googly on the off and middle line. Pant went for an expansive heave to the on side on a bent knee but the ball broke away to go off the leading edge to cover.

Light at end of tunnel

Some comedy amidst Delhi’s horror run. Axar Patel tried to steal a run but no KKR fielder tried to stop him and they began celebrating. As they knew what he didn’t know: that he was bowled. He had tried to punch a carrom ball from Sunil Narine but had dragged it back onto the top of off stump. As he saw the ball roll away towards short fine-leg he began to run for the single before he saw the LED lights blinking.

Salt to Delhi’s wounds

Opting to bat first was an interesting call from Rishabh Pant. At the halfway stage, as his side struggled their way to 153/9, it looked less interesting and more faulty. That they even got there because of a 26-ball 35 from Kuldeep Yadav was (no disrespect to Kuldeep) a damning indictment of Delhi’s batting failure at the Eden Gardens. Six overs into Kolkata Knight Riders’ innings though, Pant and Delhi’s decision to set a target looked downright disastrous. At a venue where the highest ever IPL run-chase was completed in the last match, even if the pitch looked different, it was a big risk. And Phil Salt’s powerplay assault took KKR to 79/0 in 6 overs, with more than 50% of the target completed with the fielding restrictions in place. Salt’s 60 off 28 balls in the powerplay was another display of aggressive intent that we have become used to now… and that it came against his former employers would’ve rubbed further salt into DC’s wounds.

Time to factor in heat wave

With heat waves predicted for the next couple of weeks across India, there is a strong chance of IPL feeling its effects too. With the temperatures rising, pitches may not remain as conducive to batting with Kolkata’s Eden Gardens showing first signs of it. Having remained a flat deck so far this IPL, on Monday it offered something different with seamers getting the movement and the spinners finding turn, especially in the second half of the match. All of it could make for teams to go back to the drawing board and come up with fresh tactics.