3 positives for KKR despite loss to DC in IPL 2023

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) lost their third IPL 2023 game on the trot on Thursday (April 20) after a disappointing batting performance at the Arun Jaitley Stadium helped the Delhi Capitals get their first win of the season.

The two-time champions started the season poorly with a defeat against the Punjab Kings but turned things around with victories against the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Gujarat Titans.

They were behind the eight ball for the majority of both those matches and needed some individual brilliance from Shardul Thakur and Rinku Singh to get over the line.

Against RCB, it was Thakur’s blistering 27-ball-68 which helped KKR post a mammoth 205 after struggling at 89/5 at one stage. The bowlers did the rest, skittling out RCB for 123 to hand KKR a comprehensive 81-run victory.

Against the Titans, the Knight Riders seemed dead and buried and it required a superhuman effort from Rinku to secure the win. With 28 required off the last five deliveries of the match, Rinku smashed Yash Dayal for five consecutive sixes to hand KKR an unlikely victory.

KKR performed well in patches in the next three games but weren't consistent enough in either the batting or the bowling department.

Against the Mumbai Indians (MI), Venkatesh Iyer scored a brilliant century but the rest of the batting line-up failed miserably. Even against the Capitals, the batting order imploded, as they posted a total of just 127 runs.

In the second innings, KKR managed to take the match to the final over courtesy of some exceptional bowling by the spinners. However, Kulwant Khejroliya failed to defend seven runs.

There were quite a few positives for KKR to take from this game but they have to ensure that they get back to winning ways.

With that said, let’s take a look at three positives that KKR can take from their defeat against the Capitals.

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# 1 The return of Andre Russell with the bat

KKR would have been delighted to reach 127 in their allotted 20 overs, especially after reeling at 96/9 in the 16th over.

Russell was still there out in the middle and all Varun Chakravarthy needed was to bat out the deliveries he was going to face.

However, Russell didn't quite manage to find his timing in the death overs. The likes of Mukesh Kumar and Anrich Nortje nailed their yorkers and it was only in the final over that the Jamaican managed to cut loose.

Mukesh, who had executed the yorkers to perfection up until then, lost his momentum and ended up conceding three gigantic sixes to Russell. He went for the leg stump yorker but missed his length all three times.

Russell didn’t require a second invitation and muscled those deliveries over the midwicket and the square leg fence. He remained unbeaten on 38 off 31 balls and it could be a sign of bigger things to come in the remaining games.

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# 2 Performance of the spinners

The Delhi Capitals got off to a blistering start riding on a beautiful display of batsmanship from David Warner. Coming into his match, Warner had scored runs but not in the manner we usually associate him with. He came out with clear intentions and took the attack to the KKR bowlers right from the outset.

However, Warner kept losing partners, with the Kolkata spinners doing the damage.

Varun Chakravarthy bagged the wicket of Prithvi Shaw in the third over before Nitish Rana dismissed Mitchell Marsh in the eighth. Anukul Roy then dismissed Phil Salt and Chakravarthy prized out Warner's wicket to put DC under the pump.

Barring Sunil Narine, who went for 36 runs in his four overs, the three other spinners ruled the roost and almost got them over the line.

The match could have been closer had Litton Das not missed a couple of stumping opportunities. Chakravarthy, Rana and Roy shared all six wickets between them.

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# 3 The fighting attitude of hanging on till the end

The Capitals were cruising during the run chase and seemed to be coasting home until David Warner was at the crease. Even after Warner's loss, the match was still firmly in their control with the equation reading 35 required off seven overs with six wickets in hand.

Notwithstanding the sluggish pitch, DC just needed to bat sensibly to get the job done but the Kolkata spinners had other ideas.

The trio of Anukul, Rana and Chakravarthy wreaked havoc during the final stretch of the match and DC had to break a considerable amount of sweat to secure the win in the final over.

The scenario could have been so different had Litton Das inflicted the missed stumpings. However, taking nothing away from DC, KKR fought till the end which will give them hope in the upcoming matches.