Varun Chakravarthy was at this best in the qualifier against Delhi Capitals (DC). Chakravarthy bowled in the powerplay overs, middle overs and death overs to keep DC’s scoring rate in check and DC batters guessing. After removing both DC openers, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper trusted Chakravarthy to provide another breakthrough in the 17th over and he almost did.
Chakravarthy troubled Shimron Hetmyer with his line as the Caribbean tried to send the ball out of the stadium. But Hetmyer could not get the power and elevation he needed and found the fielder in the deep. The southpaw had walked back to the dressing room but was called back to the crease as the no-ball check showed that Chakravarthy’s foot was on the line and had nothing behind it. Hetmyer came running to the crease with a wide grin on his face and fist-bumped Shreyas Iyer, who was going to face the free hit delivery.
Iyer shuffled and went back deep into the crease to get under the ball. But again, the mystery spinner was able to deceive the batter. A miscued shot from the former Delhi skipper barely crossed the 30-yard circle and just one run was added to DC’s total as the point fielder took the catch. Since, it was a free hit delivery, none of the catches counted and Chakravarthy finished with two wickets from his four overs and conceded 27 runs.
However, Hetmyer made use of the second chance and hit two sixes off Lockie Ferguson in the next over. But he could not extend his inning and got out for 17 runs from 10 deliveries.
Earlier, Chakravarthy had come in to bowl in the powerplay overs and got the wicket of a rampant Shaw. The wicket helped in slowing down the scoring rate as Shaw was looking to get his team off to a flier while the field restrictions were on. In the middle overs, he trapped a struggling Dhawan who was trying to accelerate after playing the role of anchor for DC.
