Kolkata Knight Riders (147/1 in 19 overs) beat Delhi Capitals (142/8 in 20 overs) by 8 wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. DC vs KKR: HIGHLIGHTS | SCORECARD
The Delhi Capitals just didn’t deliver on Friday. In a must-win encounter where they needed to find more equipment, they stopped instead. They squandered a great start with the bat, floundered incredibly during the middle overs and eventually offered a meek surrender in defense of 142 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Finn Allen’s brutal century buried the hosts after they were dragged into quicksand by a spin-bowling masterclass from Kolkata Knight Riders.
A stunning 51 runs in 120 deliveries pulled Delhi back so strongly that the first wickets in the chase proved meaningless. Surviving the power play for the first time this IPL season, Finn Allen finally showed why the Knight Riders have kept so much faith in him with a masterful ‘Finnish’ performance.
He mercilessly disposed of the Delhi Capitals spinners for 10 sixes and reached his maiden IPL hundred in just 47 balls. Fittingly, he hit the winning runs with a maximum and brought up his century in the same breath as Kolkata Knight Riders cruised home in just 14.2 overs.
BIG BOOST TO KKR’S PLAYOFFS HOPE
The Knight Riders, who were winless in their first six games of the campaign, remarkably fought their way back into the play-offs. After their fourth win in a row, this time in the capital city, KKR have climbed to the seventh position in the points table. With nine points from ten matches, the three-time champions now have much more than a mathematical prayer as they remain within reach of the magical 16-point mark.
Finn Allen has found the composure that eluded him during the first half of the season. Earlier, the Kiwi opener had a habit of trying to sprint out of the blocks only to stumble; however, on Friday, when he acknowledged that KKR were not chasing a mountain, he took his time before exploding.
At the end of the over, he was sitting on a measured 20 off 16 balls before going berserk against the wrists of Kuldeep Yadav and Vipraj Nigam. He let them into the stands with casual disdain as the home crowd, desperate for a breakthrough in the middle, watched in a mixture of awe and disappointment.
While Allen’s ton will rightfully hog the headlines, the real gulf between the two sides lies in the rotation departments. Led by the wily Sunil Narine, the Kolkata trio delivered 34 dot balls and claimed three wickets in 12 overs. In stark contrast, the Delhi Capitals’ spinners – especially their wrist spinners – were taken to the cleaners. Axar Patel did his duty with the ball, claiming a wicket and conceding only 27 runs, but Vipraj and Kuldeep escaped with a combined 75 runs in just five overs. Delhi have been haunted by Kuldeep’s dip in form this season and the left-arm wrister found himself nowhere to hide on Friday.
Allen and Cameron Green put on a 114-run partnership for the third wicket from just 64 balls. The sheer speed of their chase all but extinguished Delhi’s playoff aspirations. With five defeats in six home games, the Capitals are languishing in eighth place with eight points from 11 games. They can now reach a maximum of 14 points, leaving them at the mercy of the most improbable mathematical miracles.
It was a dismal performance from the Capitals, who look impressive on paper. Still, even after 11 matches, the ideal combination coached by Hemang Badani could not be found. The suspension of David Miller, who won games unaided in the first half of the season, appears to be a criminal oversight – a self-inflicted injury for Delhi.
ANUKUL ROY: THIRD ROUND
Earlier in the evening, the Knight Riders spun the net around a Delhi batting unit that started briskly before losing steam in the middle. Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy operated with clinical precision, with no real pressure from the batsmen. However, the standout was Anukul Roy. Often considered the ‘third wheel’, Roy is fast becoming an indispensable part of this KKR bowling line-up.
The leading wicket-taker in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the left-arm spinner rocked the Capitals by picking up both half-centurion Pathum Nissanko and the dangerous Tristan Stubbs. This 11th over effectively derailed the home side who looked comfortable at 80 for 3 after ten.
After an opening spell of two overs for 18 runs in the powerplay, Anukul returned with immediate effect. Nissanka, who had just reached his fifty by dancing down the track to hit a boundary, attempted the same feat on the very next ball. The Jharkhand spinner spotted the Sri Lankan advancing, cut his length and fired wide. Nissanka missed the cut and Angkrish Raghuvanshi made no mistake as he dropped the bails. In the same over, Roy covered Stubbs with a flatter delivery that gripped just enough to get past the edge and clip the top off-stump.
Reduced to 89 for 5, Delhi were firmly on the back foot and lost all the momentum generated by the opening stand’s 49 runs which arrived in just 29 balls. What followed was a passage of play so passive it probably sent fans to the food and drink counters.
Over the next five overs, Axar Patel – enduring one of his leanest spells with the bat – and Ashutosh Sharma could muster just 11 runs. Narine, Chakaravarthy, Roy and Kartik Tyagi squeezed the life out of the innings as the batsmen showed no intent. As they also tried to turn the strike around, it was left to the stadium DJ to keep the restless crowd engaged with a few chart toppers.
Axar finally tried to up the ante but looked completely out of sorts. Ashutosh Sharma took the initiative; he targeted Chakaravarthy for 16 runs in the 17th over to provide some late impetus. Axar eventually got to deep mid-wicket to make a laborious 11 off 22 balls – one of his most disappointing outings this term.
Ashutosh continued to fight back and bowled Vaibhav Arora in the penultimate over to take the total to 140. However, his dismissal on the second ball of the final over dashed any hopes of a big finish. Kartik Tyagi conceded just three runs, restricting the Capitals to a total of 142, which was never going to be enough.
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Issued by:
Debodinna Chakraborty
Published on:
08 May 2026 23:05 IST
