IPL 2024: Pant and Stubbs fifties go in vain as KKR register massive 106-run win over DC

VISAKHAPATNAM — Captain Rishabh Pant and Tristan Stubbs scored entertaining fifties for Delhi Capitals, but Kolkata Knight Riders found it easy at the end to continue their winning run with a massive 106-run victory in match 16 of IPL 2024 at the ACA-VDCA Stadium on Wednesday.

Chasing 273 was always going to be an uphill task for DC, but Pant continued to build up on his positive return to competitive cricket by hitting five sixes and four boundaries in a 25-ball 55, while Stubbs hit eight boundaries in his 32-ball 54 to help the hosts’ save some blushes, before being 166 all out in 17.2 overs.

After their batters racked up a gigantic 272, effective bowling from KKR, starting from Mitchell Starc and Vaibhav Arora to Andre Russell, Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine ensured that the visitors’ 106-run win now sends them to top place on the points table. It’s also the first time that KKR have started an IPL season with three consecutive wins.

The move of bringing in Arora as an Impact Player paid off for KKR as he removed Prithvi Shaw, who was caught at mid-on taking an excellent low catch. Starc picked his first wicket of the season as Mitchell Marsh nailed the square-drive, but hit straight to cover-point.

Arora was great in extracting movement off the pitch and was rewarded with his second wicket when Abishek Porel top-edged a pull to short fine leg. Starc also had his second scalp when David Warner chopped on to his stumps, leaving DC at 33/4.

Pant began to find his groove by flicking Starc for six, before bringing out a nice pick-up shot over deep square leg and pulling in the same region off Russell. Stubbs began with back-to-back fours off Arora and welcomed Chakaravarthy with a brace of sixes over mid-wicket and mid-on to bring up the fifty of the fifth-wicket stand with Pant.

Though spinners put brakes on DC’s scoring, Pant went berserk with his shot selection, power and usage of pace by taking 28 runs off part-timer Venkatesh Iyer. He brought out the trademark hook and pick-up shots for sixes, while flicking, slicing, whipping and slashing for four boundaries, including bringing up his fifty in 23 balls.

But Chakravarthy got the better of Pant when he mistimed his slog-sweep and gave a catch to cover, followed by the spinner taking out Axar Patel on the very next ball. Stubbs hit two sixes and a four to get his fifty, before being dismissed by Chakaravarthy. From there, Narine, Arora and Russell took the remaining three wickets each to seal a massive victory for KKR.