Delhi Capitals (DC) rode on Kuldeep Yadav's magnificent show with the ball to clinch a four-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday (April 28).
Kuldeep once again was seen in his elements as he scalped 4/14 to fold the two-time IPL champions to 146/9. In reply Rishabh Pant-led suffered a batting collapse after David Warner's (42 off 26) dismissal but then Axar Patel (24 off 17 balls) and Rovman Powell (33 not out off 16) led the charge to help DC reach the target in 19 overs to hand KKR their sixth defeat of this year’s campaign.
Meanwhile, KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer rued team's loss and also talked about the turning point of the match.
"Umesh started with a wicket, but gave away 11 runs in the over, that's where I thought the momentum turned. But he has given us a lot of good moments this season and has been very very impressive as well," Iyer said in the post match presentation.
KKR started the season on a high with three wins in the first four matches, but they now have five lost back-to-back games in a row. And their chances of reaching the playoffs are in jeopardy now. Meanwhile, with their fourth win in eight matches, Delhi moved to the sixth spot in the points table, pushing Punjab Kings to the seventh position.
"We started off really slowly and lost a couple of early wickets. It was holding up a bit (the wicket), but we didn't get a good score on the board. No real excuses, we have to go back and assess where things are going wrong. A lot of chopping and changing is happening, it's been difficult to set-up the right combination, with all injuries not helping as well. We need to stick together, play some fearless cricket, not be conservative with the bat. Five more matches remaining, we need to play well, show belief and give something back to the team and the management, forget about the past, start fresh and back your instinct (on what KKR needs to do now). You need to sit back and think where it's going wrong, can't be overconfident, give your best, if we still lose, then it's fine," he further added.
