IPL 2020: Ruthless Delhi Capitals ease past KKR in Sharjah

Delhi Capitals (DC) secured an 18-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL 2020 clash at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in Sharjah on Saturday (October 3).

Asked to bat first, Delhi Capitals got off to a flyer with the team scoring more than fifty runs in the powerplay. Both the openers Shikhar Dhawan and Shaw started off well, whacking sixes and fours at regular intervals.

However, Dhawan's rampage came to an end after he top-edged the ball high in the air and Eoin Morgan took a perfect catch in the sixth over.

Skipper Shreyas Iyer then joined Shaw and dominated the KKR bowling attack. Shaw smashed four sixes before Kamlesh Nagarkoti ended his stint at the crease in the 13th over.

Rishabh Pant then joined skipper Shreyas in the middle and the duo bludgeoned the KKR bowling attack with their fabulous batting performance. The dup slammed 18 runs in the 16th over and 17 runs in the

Meanwhile, Shreyas (88*) also completed his fastest half-century in IPL. Delhi Capitals crossed the 200 run mark in the 18th over courtesy Pant's splendid innings. Andre Russell ended Pant's knock in the 18th over. The left-handed batsman smashed 38 runs off 17 balls. 

Marcus Stoinis came in to bat ahead of Shimron Hetmyer in the death overs but failed to leave a mark. Meanwhile, Shreyas continued his onslaught on KKR bowlers. However, a good final over by Russell restricted Delhi Capitals to 228/4. For KKR, Russell picked two while Chakravarthy and Nagarkoti scalped one wicket each.

In chase of a target score of 229, KKR got off to the worst possible start possible as they lost Sunil Narine in the second over of the match for just 3 runs.

Opener Shubman Gill then formed a decent partnership with Nitish Rana as they kept the scoreboard ticking. However, Amit Mishra's spin magic helped DC to break the partnership as Gill departed after scoring 28 runs.

Andre Russell (13) once again struggled to get going as Rabada sent the big West Indian back to the dressing room after an excellent delivery.

Rana (58) secured his 9th IPL half-century, however, both he and Dinesh Karthik (6) were sent back to the dressing room by pacer Harshal Patel back-to-back deliveries, reducing KKR to 112/6.

After Nortje cleaned up Cummins' wicket, KKR found a new surge with Eoin Morgan and Rahul Tripathi in the middle. The pair stuck the ball exquisitely before Nortje once again came up with the goods for DC and dismissed Morgan on 44.

Tripathi (36) tried hard till the end but Stoinis' yorker cleaned up his stumps with KKR finishing on 210/8 while Kamlesh Nagarkoti (3*) and Shivam Mavi (1*) staying unbeaten.