Nitish Rana, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy give Kolkata Knight Riders big win
Rana and Narine put up a strong partnership to spark a turnaround, and their bowlers roared into life to help them to a 59-run win
Rana and Narine put up a strong partnership to spark a turnaround, and their bowlers roared into life to help them to a 59-run win
Scorer: Chandan Duorah | Commentator: Sidharth Monga
That ends this game's offerings but the other one is on a tab near you. KKR have given themselves breathing space, and later tonight they will know who their main rival for the qualifying spots is. Thanks for joining us
Varun C, the Man of the Match: "This is surreal. The last few games I didn't get wickets. I wanted to get one or two today, but thank god I got five. I enjoyed Shreyas Iyer's wicket the most. I was bowling to the shorter boundary so I had to attack the stumps. I want to thank my mother Hema Malini, father Vinoth Chakravarathy and fiancée Neha. And all my physios. Around 2015 when I was not making much money as an architect, I thought I will try something else when I wasn't able to meet my needs."
Eoin Morgan: "We had had a nice couple of days to reflect on things. In such a compact tournament, it can be easy to get caught up. Great of Sunil to come back and play as a proper allrounder. And Nitish Rana and him adding all the runs. The decision to bat Narine there is all the coach. He likes to play his cards. It is all Brendon. Given the nature of the tournament, it is not a tournament where sides get 100 in top 10. You need a longer batting line-up than a strong one. That is why I am batting lower. Varun is such a humble guy. he just goes about his work. Throughout the tournament, he has been our standout performer."
Shreyas Iyer: "Looking at the start, we should have put a lot of pressure on them and gone for wickets. But the way they batted, especially how Sunil Narine went after us. We could have executed the plans better. I think they chose the bowlers to go after really well. They were really good in shot selection. They outplayed us in pretty much every department. Kudos t their approach and mindset. You need an amazing start when chasing 190. Losing two wickets in the Powerplay puts a lot of prssure on the others. We need to play with freedom and not have a survival mindset. Obviously we are disappointed with the loss, but I am glad it is happening at this point of time. There are a lot of learnings from this game."
**
Big big win. Big turnaround for KKR. Breathing space for them. DC, not yet assured of qualification but aiming at a top two finish, now looking away from that top of the table. And eight overs into the contest, it looked like a familiar tale. Then came together two guys going through personal turmoil. Rana had lost his father-in-law yesterday. Narine had had questions again against his action. And also injury issues. They came together, and exposed a tactically poor day for DC. First of all they had not bounced Rana at all. Now they gave spin to Narine. Both loved it. And then DC were too slow to go to their big fast overs. Narine and Rana absolutely plundered spin and military medium stuff. In 9.2 overs, they added 115 runs, getting better of their personal struggles
Then Cummins finally turned a corner after bowling really well for long durations for no wickets. Today he took one first ball, and then bowled a peach to Dhawan. It was followed by the continued struggle of Rishabh Pant. And the pressure was enough for the wily Varun C to come in and sweep up the chips. The first five-for of the season
Anrich Nortje comes out
TU Deshpande c Morgan b Ferguson 1 (3b 0x4 0x6) SR: 33.33
Over the wicket to Deshpande
Ferguson will bowl the last over of the match
Akhilesh: "Serious respect for Sunil Narine. The way the man reinvents himself to perform continuously,....very deserving of the 'legend' status around his name."
His success in the middle order has opened up possibilities for KKR in how to deploy Narine, the batsman
Also: why is Pant's strike rate so slow this season and why did Axar Patel bowl just one over?
Rana and Narine put up a strong partnership to spark a turnaround, and their bowlers roared into life to help them to a 59-run win
ESPNcricinfo's updates from the 42nd game of IPL 2020
Delhi Capitals, meanwhile, could qualify with even just one win from their remaining matches