Mumbai, April 28 (Agency) Kuldeep Yadav’s four-wicket haul followed by Rovman Powell’s quickfire 16-ball 33 not out helped Delhi Capitals (DC) to beat Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by four wickets in an IPL match here at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday. Kuldeep’s (4/14) spin show restricted Knight Riders to 146/9. In reply, Powell took Capitals (150/6) home with one over to spare. Capitals had a horrendous start to their 147-run target chase, thanks to Umesh Yadav who caught and bowled opener Prithvi Shaw for a golden duck. One wicket became two for KKR as Harshit Rana dismissed Mitchell Marsh for 13. David Warner and Lalit Yadav got into the rebuilding but their 65-run partnership ended in the 10th over when Umesh returned. The fast bowler got the crucial wicket of Warner (42 off 26) who was caught at deep fine leg by Sunil Narine. Narine then added one wicket to his name in the next over when he trapped Lalit for 22. The match was evenly balanced as KKR removed two more Capitals’ men, including skipper Rishabh Pant for two.
However, Powell turned out to be too much for KKR to handle as the West Indian smashed three sixes and one four to take away the game from KKR. Earlier in the day, Capitals made early inroads after putting Knight Riders into bat. Openers Aaron Finch and Venkatesh Iyer were cheaply dismissed inside the Powerplay. Chetan Sakariya first castled Finch (3), and then caught Venkatesh (6) off the bowling of Axar Patel. Kuldeep then rattled KKR’s middle-order, removing Baba Indrajith (6), Narine (0), KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer (42) and Andre Russell (0) in quick succession. While wickets were tumbling, Shreyas held one end till the 13th over. On the first ball of the 14th over, a wrong’un denied the KKR skipper a half-century. In the last five overs, it was Nitish Rana (57 off 34) who pulled KKR out of the troubled waters with his four sixes and three boundaries. However, Mustafizur Rahman had the last laugh as he bagged three wickets, including Rana, in the final over. Mustafizur (3/18) took three wickets, while Sakariya (1/17) and Axar (1/28) got apiece for Capitals.