Delhi Capitals huff and puff their way to 1st win

Skipper David Warner’s half-century (57 off 41 balls) following an impressive display by the bowlers took Delhi Capitals (DC) to their first win in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season here at the Ferozeshah Kotla grounds of the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Thursday night.

The Capitals restricted Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to 127 all out, before chasing the target in 19.2 overs with four wickets in hand.

The DC pace attack, comprising Ishant Sharma (2/19), Mukesh Kumar (1/34) and Anrich Nortje (2/20), make early inroads with each of the three pacers taking a wicket inside the powerplay to leave KKR at 35/3 after the first six overs.

Litton Das fell to Mukesh Kumar off a poor shot before the in-form Venkatesh Iyer was scalped at slip off the bowling Nortje for a duck.

Veteran Ishant Sharma, playing his first game of the season, took out Nitish Rana for four in the sixth over.

From thereon, it was an uphill climb for KKR who kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Even the in-form Rinku Singh (4) couldn’t come good and only opener Jason Roy (43 off 39) held ground before he was dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav (2/15), leaving KKR at 93/7. A couple of more wickets reduced KKR to 96/9.

However, Andre Russell (38 not out off 31 balls) took KKR to 127.

The chase should have been easy for DC but once again Prithvi Shaw (13) was disappointed, bowled by Varun Chakravarthy after DC had powered to 34/0 in the first four overs.

Despite the loss of Shaw, Warner continued to play his shots, hitting Narine for four overs in the sixth over to take DC to 61/1 at the end of the batting powerplay.

But then Mitchell Marsh and Phil Salt were dismissed in quick succession to leave DC at 67/3.

DC, however, continued their march towards the target despite losing half-centurion Warner to Chakravarthy.

Two quick wickets in the 16th and 17th overs provided KKR some hope as they managed to take the game to the last over. However, Axar Patel (19 off 22) saw the Capitals through to their first victory.

DC had lost all their five matches before Thursday’s game.