Prithvi Shaw and David Warner put on a blistering opening stand to help Delhi Capitals beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 44 runs at Brabourne Stadium. Before cameos from Rishabh Pant, Shardul Thakur, and Axar Patel powered them to a frightening total of 215, the two added 93 in just 8.4 overs to establish the groundwork.
Shreyas Iyer chose to bowl in the second half, hoping for a better pitch. The pitch, on the other hand, didn't vary much, and Knight Riders' slow start meant the asking rate was always rising. For a time, Shreyas and Nitish Rana kept them on the trail, but once they were dismissed, the pursuit was over.
Coming in for Anrich Nortje, Khaleel Ahmed took 3 for 25, including two wickets at the top of the order, while Kuldeep Yadav took 4 for 35, including a three-wicket over, in the lower middle order.
Shaw dominated the Capitals' previous game, which was against the Lucknow Super Giants. He continued his good form in this game, hitting Umesh Yadav for four with the first ball of the innings.
Shreyas resorted to Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine within the powerplay after seeing his seamers going for broke. Warner wouldn't let them get comfortable, and Shaw scored his half-century in just 27 balls before Varun castled him with a googly.
In the company of Russell, Sam Billings kept the Knight Riders' dreams alive for a little longer. In the 14th over, he hit Axar for four and six, but Khaleel came back to remove him. Kuldeep scooped up Cummins, Narine, and Umesh in the next over, all in the space of four balls. Umesh sprinted to midwicket and dived full length to complete the return catch near the 30-yard circle for his wicket. Russell would have struggled to get the needed score of 73 from four overs.