IPL 2020: Nitish Rana`s fifty, Varun Chakravarthy`s fifer help Kolkata Knight Riders crush Delhi Capitals by 59 runs

Varun Chakravarthy was adjudged man of the match for his stellar bowling performance.

Abu Dhabi: The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Saturday (October 24, 2020) crushed Delhi Capitals (DC) by 59-runs in the 42nd match of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 13 season in Abu Dhabi.

The double-header weekend's first match couldn't give fans the thrill they were looking for as brilliant batting and equally impressive bowling by the Kolkata Knight Riders apparently stopped Delhi Capitals from regaining their top position in the points table.

The match at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi witnessed some excellent batting performances by KKR's Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine which was followed by the best bowling figures of this season by Varun Chakravarthy.

KKR after being put to bat first couldn't perform well in the first powerplay and lost three wickets for 42 runs by the eighth over. But, Rana who was promoted to open the innings, revelled in his new role as he overcame a personal tragedy to smash a whirlwind 81 and shared a game-changing 115-run stand with Sunil Narine (64) to lift KKR to an imposing 194/6.

Rana (81 off 53) and Narine (64 off 32) both scored fifties and set a not-so-easy target of 194-6 for the DC. 

Chaing the target set by the KKR, Ajinkya Rahane departed on the very first ball and, if that wasn't bad enough for the Delhi franchise, Dhawan who came into the match with a record back to back centuries was dismissed in the third over. Both were Pat Cummins' victims.

Skipper Shreyas Iyer (47 off 38) and Rishabh Pant (27 off 33) then tried to bring DC back into the game but Varun Chakravarthy's introduction to the bowling attack was the end game for Delhi.

Chakravarthy first got rid of Pant and then was also on a hat-trick after dismissing Shimron Hetmyer and Shreyas Iyer in his second over.

Chakravarthy didn't stop there and made sure that his team improves their NRR and finished the match with 5-20 in 4 overs. DC could only reach 135-9 in their 20-over quota.

The 29-year old right-arm leg-break was adjudged man of the match for his stellar bowling performance.

Brief scores: 

KKR 194-6 in 20 overs (Nitish Rana 81, Sunil Narine 64; Anrich Nortje 2-27) beat DC 135-9 in 20 overs (Shreyas Iyer 47, Rishabh Pant 27; Varun Chakravarthy 5-20)