Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Delhi Capitals (DC) by 14 runs in the 48th match of the Indian Premier League 2025 (IPL 2025) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on April 29.
Chasing 205 runs, Delhi Capitals were rocked early by Anukul Roy, who dismissed Abishek Porel (4 runs off 2 balls) after getting smacked for a boundary on the first ball of the innings.
Faf du Plessis (62 runs off 45 balls) hit some lusty blows in the fourth over off Harshit Rana to give DC a move on from the early breakthrough. Du Plessis smashed three boundaries, putting the pressure back on KKR.
The South African, returning to form after an injury break, joined Karun Nair (15 runs off 13 balls) to rebuild. However, KKR’s Vaibhav Arora compounded DC’s troubles in the fifth over, sending Nair packing.
Sunil Narine delivered a decisive blow by running out KL Rahul (7 runs off 5 balls) in the seventh over with a direct hit. Rahul’s departure left DC reeling at 60/3, but du Plessis held firm, steering the innings alongside captain Axar Patel (43 runs off 23 balls).
DC stabilized through du Plessis’ measured aggression and Axar’s grit, despite the latter battling a left hand injury that limited his grip.
Du Plessis’ innings was punctuated by classy strokeplay, including a six over long-on and two fours off Varun Chakravarthy in the ninth over, which yielded 16 runs.
Axar played a crucial role, smashing a six off Narine to end the 10th over, keeping DC’s run rate competitive. At the 10-over mark, the score read 97/3.
Du Plessis brought up his fifty in just 31 deliveries in the 11th over that saw him and Axar collecting a boundary each.
Axar hammered Andre Russell for two more fours in the 12th over. After belting Narine for a six, Axar perished in the 14th over as the former claimed an all-important wicket to bring KKR back in the game.
Narine bagged another scalp in the same over in the form of Tristan Stubbs (1 run off 3 balls), who got cleaned up on an off-break delivery.
The off-spinner caused du Plessis' undoing in the 16th over to give a major dent to DC’s hopes of winning this match. Though, Vipraj Nigam (38 runs off 19 balls) and Ashutosh Sharma (7 runs off 6 balls) pocketed 11 runs in the 17th over off Harshit, Chakaravarthy turned the game on its head, sending both Ashutosh and Mitchell Starc (0 runs off 1 ball) packing on back-to-back deliveries in the 18th.
Vipraj tonked a six to end the 18th over bringing the equation down to 38 runs off 12 balls. He accumulated two boundaries, including a six, in the 19th over off Harshit. KKR needed 25 runs going into the final over.
With 25 runs to defend, Russell had enough in the bank. After conceding two fours, he castled Vipraj.
DC eventually finished at 190 runs for the loss of the nine wickets as KKR emerged victorious by 14 runs.
After this victory, KKR is still at the seventh place on the IPL 2025 points table. Despite the loss, DC remains in top four.
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