Phil Salt Fires as KKR Crushes DC at Eden Gardens
Monday night in Kolkata belonged to the KKR squad. The team breezed past Delhi Capitals in another one-sided IPL 2024 fixture at Eden Gardens, notching up a seven-wicket victory and slotting themselves into second place on the points table. If you’re a DC fan, this one hurt. After winning the toss, Rishabh Pant’s side opted to bat first—a decision that looked shaky from the start.
Of course, DC showed flashes of hope. Prithvi Shaw blitzed three consecutive boundaries in the first over, but their momentum fizzled fast. Kolkata’s bowlers, especially Varun Chakravarthy, just never let DC get comfortable. Chakravarthy picked up three crucial wickets, leaving DC’s batters scratching their heads. Vaibhav Arora struck in the powerplay as well, and Harshit Rana kept things tight at the other end. Once again, Delhi’s middle order buckled. Jake Fraser-McGurk flashed some promise with a quick 20, but was cut short when Venkatesh Iyer plucked a sharp catch at midwicket.
With wickets tumbling at regular intervals, Delhi was left relying on the unlikely batting heroics of Kuldeep Yadav. Coming lower down the order, Kuldeep’s unbeaten 35 off 26 balls was the main reason DC scraped to 153/9. Not an easy target for a team with shaky confidence, but certainly not enough against a power-packed KKR lineup at home.
Relentless KKR Chase Led By Salt and Iyers
If you blinked, you probably missed half of Kolkata’s chase. The opening duo of Phil Salt and Sunil Narine cranked up the tempo early. Salt, in particular, looked like a man in a hurry, hammering the DC bowlers all over Eden Gardens. He reached his half-century at breakneck pace and made the chase look embarrassingly simple for the visitors. His 68 off 33 balls took all the pressure off his teammates.
When the openers departed, Delhi had a glimmer of hope. But KKR’s middle order snuffed it out quickly. Shreyas Iyer, calm as ever, chipped in with 33 runs, and Venkatesh Iyer—who’d already shone in the field—added 26. The duo’s unbeaten 57-run partnership wrapped things up with 21 balls still unused. Bowlers for the Capitals looked tired and short on answers by the end. For KKR, everything just clicked: clinical bowling, fearless batting—textbook T20 dominance.
This win pushed KKR up the ladder to sit in second place, trailing only the runaway leaders. Delhi Capitals, on the other hand, are still searching for answers. Their campaign keeps stalling right when momentum is needed most. After this loss, DC remains stuck in the crowded mid-table, still battling inconsistency with the business end of the league looming.
