5 memorable moments from the KKR-DD match that don't fade away

Another one-sided encounter saw the Delhi Daredevil's and Kolkata Knight Riders face off. KKR started the tournament with a bang as they won games on a continuous basis, but are going through somewhat of a downward spiral of late.

Delhi Daredevils, too, have been solid in this tournament under the leadership of Zaheer Khan—who has surprised many with his captaincy.

Today, in a top of the table affair, the team from the capital city won against the team from the city of lights. There were several memorable moments from the match that don't fade away, quite like the Axe Signature range of body perfumes.

And here are the top 5:

---

Andre Russell’s superstar bowling

The more you watch Andre Russell, the more you realize his importance to the team. As batsman, he can score runs at a blistering pace and win you games from the hardest of situations.

As a bowler, he is a regular wicket-taker—and, today, he showed just that.

Opening the bowling for the Knight Riders, he picked up two scalps in the very first over of the match—stunning Delhi out of their wits. He ended his magical spell with 3 wickets while giving away just 26 runs. His first-over onslaught might as well have desecrated Delhi if it weren’t for…

Karun Nair’s fine innings

The another common—and boring—thing of this IPL has been that not many local players have sprung up to do well on a consistent basis. It has been the big-name players who have come up with the goods on regular intervals.

However, in today’s game, a new weed sprout up and became the tree that KKR found almost impossible to uproot: his name is Karun Nair.

He faced half a century of balls and scored 68 runs at a strike rate of over 130 to give Delhi Daredevils a score that they could defend. It came at a time when the top-order failed them as all three of Quinton De Kock, Shreyas Iyer and Sanju Samson went away cheaply.

Sam Billings’ memorable debut

In terms of new-faced foreign players setting the IPL ablaze, there has been disappointment in that field as well. So far in the tournament, the already-heralded names have been firing the crackers—be it David Warner of Aaron Finch.

But a new face has popped up here as well.

Sam Billings was finally given a chance to show what he has got and he grasped it with both hands. Scoring a 34 ball 54, he showed his class in his very first IPL game. He was later cleaned up by Umesh Yadav, but he showed his ability before that.

Who needs [the hero of] Gautam when you have Robin?

Well, we just had to do that. Robin Uthappa continued his fine form with an incredible innings today as well. He has been among the best performers of this year’s IPL and is continuing the tradition of openers’ superb showing in this year’s IPL.

In a sense, he is the unluckiest player in India right now as almost every opener under the Indian Sun is in fine form.

As Gambhir failed to make an impact today, which is a rare showing in itself, he stood up to make 72 runs in 52 balls and give them the perfect start to chase a total of 187 runs. His innings might have gone in vain, as the middle order of KKR imploded, but it was still a very strong statement of intent.

Brathwaite’s fury

Carlos Brathwaite shot himself to fame with his match-winning 4 sixes of 4 consecutive balls that won West Indies the World T20 2016. After that, he never really went away from the limelight and there were hopeful gazes towards him during this IPL.

He couldn’t pick up where he left off in the World Cup, but today was the day he showed why Delhi paid so much money to acquire his services.

With his bat, he scored 34 off just 11 balls to give Delhi the extra 20 runs that won them the game ultimately. With the ball, he was highly expensive as he bled 47 runs in his 4 overs, but took 3 wickets in the process, making amends for his leaky display.