KKR vs DC: 272 too good for Delhi as Narine powers Kolkata to top of points table

Kolkata came up with an emphatic win as they hammered Delhi by 106 runs, the 9th-highest margin of win by runs in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday, April 3.

After posting 272, the second-highest total in the history of the tournament, Kolkata rode on an all-round bowling show to shoot out Delhi for 166 in 17.2 overs. The 106-run win helped them storm to the top of the IPL 2024 points table, displacing Rajasthan from the numero uno spot.

Andre Russell’s 39-ball 85, 18-year-old Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s flamboyant 54 and late cameos from Andre Russell and Rinku Singh helped Kolkata post a humungous total of 272, 27 runs more than their previous best total in the IPL. With the ball, big-money signgning Mitchell Starc set the tone with 2 early wickets along with Impact Player Vaibhav Arora. Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy then spun a web around the Delhi batting unit as Rishabh Pant’s men suffered a crushing defeat.

For the first time in their history, Kolkata have won 3 in 3 and Shreyas Iyer’s men have laid down an early marker. With a Net Run Rate of over 2 already, Kolkata are looking like early contenders for a spot in the playoffs.

CARNAGE IN VIZAG

If the first two overs were anything to go by, Kolkata didn’t look like scoring as many as they did. Khaleel Ahmed and Ishant Sharma kept it tight and allowed Narine to get only one of his first six deliveries.

However, Phil Salt got going, attacking the Delhi pacers in the powerplay, before Narine took down Ishant in the 4th over, hitting 3 sixes and 2 boundaries in a 26-run over. There was no looking back from there on as Narine and Salt added 60 runs in just 27 balls for the opening stand.

While Salt fell for 18 off 12 balls to Anrich Nortje, Narine did not stop the carnage as he was joined by 18-year-old Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who enthralled Kolkata fans, including their co-owner Shah Rukh Khan, playing some audacious shots for his 27-ball 54. The crowd was up on its feet throughout the Kolkata innings as 18 sixes and 22 boundaries in a sensational display of power-hitting.

Narine smashed 7 sixes and 7 boundaries for his 39-ball 85, his highest score in the IPL. Narine had not scored a total of 100 runs in any of the last three seasons, but he has already gone past 150 in the ongoing season. Kolkata’s decision to send him to open the innings again has proved to be a master-stroke as their former captain Gautam Gambhir, now mentor, had a huge smile on his face.