Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) were condemned to their fifth straight defeat after suffering a four-wicket loss against the Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday. The star on the night was former KKR spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who picked up four wickets yet again but missed out on breaking Amit Mishra's 15-year-old record of best bowling figures for the Delhi-based franchise.
Mishra took five wickets for 17 runs against Deccan Chargers in the inaugural season. He also took 4/11 against Punjab Kings in the 2016 edition. However, Kuldeep did not bowl his full quota of overs which prevented him from breaking this record. Speaking at the post-match press conference, DC skipper Rishabh Pant revealed his reasoning behind not letting Kuldeep complete his stipulated quota of overs.
"I was thinking to give him another over from this end. Then we thought he'd get the over from the other end. The ball was getting wet because of that so we thought it was better to give it to a fast bowler. I stopped him to give him a change of pace in the match. It didn't work in our favour but it's part and parcel of the game," he said.
The match always looked in control for DC, but the skipper believed that his side lost too many wickets in the middle overs, "Obviously we were thinking that we lost too many wickets in the middle, but if we take the game deep because there was not enough runs needed at that point, then we thought we will get across the line. Obviously, it's good to have Marsh back. But Khaleel got injured in the last match. Once he's back, I think we will be 100%."
The win now takes DC to sixth on the points table, just two below Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Lucknow Super Giants (LGS) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), and having a better net run rate (0.695) than the aforementioned teams. However, Pant and the DC players and staff are not worried about the table just yet.
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"We are not thinking too much about the points table. We are taking it one match at a time. We can be more clear with our plans because when you are under pressure if you are clear with your plans, that one or two extra boundaries can be the difference in the match. That's something we are working on, a little bit more energy in the field," he said.
