IPL 2021 | KKR vs DC: Hits & Flops as Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana propel Knight Riders towards Playoffs

It was a low scoring affair but by no means a boring one as Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Delhi Capitals by three wickets in Sharjah to win their fifth game of the Indian Premier League 2021. They also consolidated their position at the fourth position in the points table in a crucial mid-table battle that is unfolding between four teams in this season of the IPL. With their third win out of four games in the UAE leg, the Knight Riders now have 10 points from 11 games. 

Capitals on the other hand couldn’t get past the Chennai Super Kings which they were aiming to with a win in this game and thus remain at 16 points from 11 games. With a win, not only would they have gotten over the Super Kings in the points table, but would have become the first team to cement their place in the Playoffs. But it wasn’t to be. 

Much like in every game, this too had some Hits and Flops in terms of players and they will be analysed below. 

Hits

Sunil Narine

It was a wicket that was favouring spin and no doubt Sunil Narine would have benefitted from that. However, the way he bowled was just unbelievable. Getting Shreyas Iyer, one of the best players of spin, deceived by pace and line and his stumps rattled, is nothing less than mind-blowing. 

Apart from Iyer, the 33-year-old also dismissed Lalit Yadav and gave away only 18 runs from his four overs. 

However, the moment that got him to Man of the Match was his batting. At a time when KKR were struggling at 96-5 with 32 runs still needed from 32 balls and making runs getting difficult with each passing ball, Narine came and in just 10 balls changed the face of the game. He hit the premier bowler of the Capitals, Kagiso Rabada for 19 runs in one over and the game was almost over. 

Nitish Rana

Another man that was primarily responsible for the KKR victory in this very tightly contested game was Nitish Rana. While Narine changed the game in the 16th over, there was another time that Rana changed the game, and it was in the 14th over when Lalit Yadav was bowling. 

Rana, a Delhi teammate of Lait Yadav, had some idea or the other about the bowling of his domestic cricket teammate and hit him for 15 runs in four balls before Dinesh Karthik hit another four in that very over to bring the equation down from 52 off 42 to 32 of 36. 

The fact that Rana remained till the end to carry his team home even as wickets kept falling showed that he was determined to get the two points and thank those who always showed faith in him. 

Tim Southee

Although the KKR debut of the Kiwi would be more remembered for his alterations with Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, Tim Southee also bowled brilliantly in the conditions, which wasn’t really favourable to him, especially with the heat turning his face red. 

But determined to prove the call to replace an injured Andre Russell with him right, Southee bowled the full quota of four overs and gave away only 29 runs to take a wicket as well. 

The best moment was the last over that he bowled. He gave way only six runs, four of which came from a dropped catch. Had that catch not been dropped, the last over might have seen four wickets, which remained three only, two of which were runouts. 

Flops

Kagiso Rabada

In a match as low scoring as this one, each ball is important and considering the fact that there was not even a single six hit in the entire innings of the Capitals, Rabada giving away two six and 20 runs in a single over was criminal, to say the least. 

Not only did he gave away 20 runs, but at a moment in the game, where a tight over could have turned the game n Delhi’s favour by all means. In total, the Proteas bowler gave away 28 runs in just three overs. This is after he bowled a wicket maiden to remove Shubman Gill

Lalit Yadav

Lalit, who did not bowl in the last game that he played and remained in the playing XI only keeping in mind the Sharjah wicket which supports spinners. Both his ability to bowl off-spin against plenty of lefty batters in the KKR batting order and also his ability to play spin better made him an automatic choice in the XI. 

However, in the game, both the tricks of his trade failed him big time. First, the 24-year-old was trapped leg before by Narine on a duck while batting, then he was taken to the cleaners by a lefty, Nitish Rana while bowling, making it a forgetful game for him. He gave away 35 runs in only three overs. 

Having achieved this victory, the Knight Riders would now look to carry the momentum in their last three games where they face Punjab Kings in the next match and Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals in the next two respectively, to make sure they reach the Playoffs. The Capitals however play a tough Mumbai Indians in their next game.