IPL 2021: Clinical KKR restrict DC to 127-9

Ferguson dismissed both the openers -- Steve Smith and Shikhar Dhawan -- who were going strong and promised a big score for Delhi but Ferguson applied himself brilliantly to send them back to pavilion.

Sharjah: A fiery spell by Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) speedster Lockie Ferguson and spinning trap laid by Sunil Narine restricted batting heavy Delhi Capitals (DC) to 127-9 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match here.

Ferguson dismissed both the openers -- Steve Smith (39 off 34) and Shikhar Dhawan (24 from 20 balls) -- who were going strong and promised a big score for Delhi but Ferguson applied himself brilliantly to send them back to pavilion. Narine took two wickets.

DC skipper Rishabh Pant did make a significant contribution of 39 from 36 deliveries as he tried to accelerate the scoreline and give his team something to fight for but was run out by Karun Nair.

Venkatesh Iyer too contributed with a couple of wickets.

The bowlers justified skipper Eoin Morgan's decision to put Delhi into bat on the Sharjah track, where the ball was stopping and coming onto the bat. Not a single six was hit during the entire innings.

Dhawan hit five boundaries in quick time as he converted a lot of balls into half volleys before Venkatesh pouched him at point of Lockie Ferguson.

After the Powerplay, DC were 39/1 but it soon became 40/2, as Sunil Narine (2/18) castled Shreyas Iyer (1) in the seventh over.

Then Pant joined Smith and both found scoring difficult as there was no pace off the track and the balls were not really coming onto the bat. Varun Chakravarthy (0/24 in 4 overs) as usual was steady while Narine (2/18) also played his part.

Smith tried changing gears and hammered successive fours in the 10th over off Chakravarthy, as Delhi got 12 off that over.

The Australian then slog-swept Narine and was looking in his element when Ferguson pegged back Delhi by castling Smith as they slipped to 77/3.

Kolkata then grabbed three quick wickets, as Shimron Hetmyer (4), Lalit Yadav (0), who was trapped in front by Narine, and Axar Patel (0) too perished cheaply as Delhi was teetering at 92/6.

With Pant failing to up the ante, Venkatesh (2/29) bowled really well in the back-10 mixing it up nicely at a speed f ear;y 130 kmph which is certain to keep Hardik Pandya on tenterhooks if not in coming days then definitely in coming months.

For the record, Pant became the leading run-scorer for Delhi Capitals surpassing Virender Sehwag.

With PTI