Leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy five-wicket haul was the standout moment in Kolkata Knight Riders 59-run win over Delhi Capitals in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. (HIGHLIGHTS | POINTS TABLE | SCORECARD)
Kolkata Knight Riders looked in all sorts of trouble, reduced to 42 for 3 in the eighth over found Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine, who changed the game with a swashbuckling partnership of 115 runs.
Rana who had endured indifferent starts off lately came good hitting 81 of 53 balls, while Narine made 64 of 32 balls. The duo lifted KKR to an imposing 194/6 after being put in to bat.
Chasing a stiff target, Chakravarthy (5/20) and Pat Cummins (3/17) gave the Delhi Capitals batsmen a torrid time to restrict them to 135 for 9 in 20 overs.
Chakravarthy, adjudged Man of the Match, said, that things felt surreal. “The last few games, I didn't get wickets. I wanted to get one or two today, but thank god I got five. I enjoyed Shreyas Iyer's wicket the most. I was bowling to the shorter boundary so I had to attack the stumps.”
Chakravarthy, who almost gave up on cricket and worked as a freelance architect, spun a web around DC batsmen returning figures of 4-0-20-5.
“I want to thank my mother Hema Malini, father Vinoth Chakravarathy and fiancée Neha. And all my physios. Around 2015 when I was not making much money as an architect, I thought, I will try something else when I wasn't able to meet my needs,” Chakravarthy added. Kolkata
Knight Riders skipper Eoin Morgan couldn’t have asked for more. The win brightens his side chances in race to playoff berths, while also gives the team a much needed confidence.
“Varun is such a humble guy. he just goes about his work. Throughout the tournament, he has been our standout performer,” Morgan said. He also praised Narine and Rana’s effort.
“Great of Sunil (Narine) to come back and play as a proper allrounder. And Nitish Rana and him adding all the runs,” Morgan added.
