IPL 2020: Delhi Capitals beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 18 runs

At one point, when they were reeling at 122 for 6 in the 14th over of their 229-run chase, it looked like Kolkata Knight Riders would be the only team to not cross the 200-run in Sharjah, which has been a nightmare for even the best bowlers so far at IPL 2020. However, a Rahul Tewatia-like approach from Eoin Morgan and Rahul Tripathi gave the Knight Riders supporters a glimmer of hope before Delhi Capitals clinched a thrilling victory on Saturday.

With the hard-fought win, Shreyas Iyer's men displaced Royal Challengers Bangalore and regained the top spot on the IPL 2020 points table.

For the most part of Super Saturday, it was a disappointing batting effort from KKR, considering no target has been big enough in Sharjah so far at IPL 2020. Sunil Narine is no longer the pinch-hitter he was and KKR need to realise it sooner than later as the West Indies all-rounder failed to give the much-needed impetus at the top of the order.

Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana added a 64-run stand for the 2nd wicket but the young opener lacked the fluency he had been showcasing in the previous matches. Gill kept the scorers busy but Andre Russell flattered to deceive. Just like his captain Dinesh Karthik, who made quite a few tactical errors on the day, the all-rounder did one when he decided to go after arguably the best bowler in IPL,



Kagiso Rabada. Despite hitting a six and a boundary in Rabada's over, Russell paid the price for it, losing his wicket for just 13.

Captain Karthik has got 3 successive single-digit scores as his lean patch in IPL 2020 continues. Karthik's decision to promote himself ahead of Eoin Morgan in a steep run chase is not going to go down well with the supporters of the 2-time champions.

It was Morgan who waged a valiant battle along with Rahul Tripathi as the duo gave Delhi Capitals a bit of scare. There were worried faces in the DC dugout when Tripathi hit Marcus Stoinis for 24 runs in the 17th over, bringing down the asking rate to 18.

When Kagiso Rabada was hit for 3 sixes in his last over by Eoin Morgan, there was more tension in the DC dug-out but it was Anrich Nortje, who did the job once again, by getting the big wicket of Morgan in the penultimate over.

Morgan hit 44 off 18 and Tripathi hit 36 off 16 but their efforts came too late as Karthik once again seemed to have got his batting order wrong.

Earlier in the day, Delhi Capitals came up with a clinical batting performance led by captain Shreyas Iyer who hit his fastest fifty in the IPL. Iyer remained unbeaten on 88 from just 38 balls as Delhi Capitals posted their 2nd highest total in the history of the tournament.