IPL 2022, Delhi Capitals vs Kolkata Knight Riders Highlights: Kuldeep Yadav, Rovman Powell star as DC beat KKR by 4 wickets | Cricket News – Times of India

Kuldeep Yadav’s comeback story gets rosier by the day. He had managed to take just five wickets in 14 matches for Kolkata Knight Riders in 2019 and 2020 before he was benched for good in 2021. In the two games he played against KKR this season, Kuldeep has now eight wickets in his bag alone. On Thursday night, he picked up 4/14 to back up his 4/35 in the previous game.
As he broke the back of KKR batting for the second time this season, he offered Delhi Capitals an opening to storm back into the competition by restricting KKR to 146/9. His spell set up the game for a nervy Capitals batting lineup to chase down the target with six balls and four wickets to spare.

Rovman Powell’s unbeaten 16-ball 33 calmed the nerves in the Capitals dugout once the chase started to wobble with David Warner’s dismissal for a 26-ball 42 and captain Rishabh Pant getting out for 2 at 84/5 in the 12th over. KKR’s freefall under new captain Shreyas Iyer looks far from over.
AS IT HAPPENED
Kuldeep has been vocal about the confidence Capitals Rishabh Pant has given him through the tournament. He delivered again at Wankhede stadium. Coming on to bowl after the Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya, Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur had applied the choke in the powerplay, Kuldeep ran through the middle order claiming the wickets of IPL debutant Baba Indrajith and Sunil Narine with the second and third ball of his spell to reduce KKR to 4/35.

Just as it looked Iyer was gaining some momentum on 42 off 37, Pant miraculously caught an under-edge off a square cut off Kuldeep. Kuldeep deceived the dangerous Andre Russell three balls later and had him stumped for a duck. The pitch seemed dual-paced and Kuldeep’s guile was too much to handle for the indecisive KKR batting lineup which was reeling at 83/6 in the 14th over.
For all the talk about Pant’s confidence in Kuldeep, he didn’t let Kuldeep finish his full quota of four overs. Perhaps, KKR found a window to break free and Nitish Rana capitalized on Lalit Yadav bowling the 17th over by taking 18 runs to add some momentum to the innings. Rana looked like the only steady thing in the chaotic KKR camp which has heavily chopped and changed its playing XI. The team doesn’t even resemble to the one they started with in the tournament.
A calm head with a clear vision, he threatened to hurt Capitals big time with his 34-ball 57. During the course of his enterprising partnership of 62 off 34 balls with Rinku Singh for the seventh wicket, Rana was exposing Capitals’ vulnerable death bowling. Mustafizur turned on his magic in the last over, conceding just two runs and picking up three wickets, to finish his four overs with figures of 3/18 and ensured KKR didn’t run away with the game.