Phil Salt’s explosive half-century put Kolkata Knight Riders back on winning ways as the host recorded an emphatic seven-wicket win over Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League at the Eden Gardens here on Monday.

KKR rode on Varun Chakravarthy’s brilliant three-wicket haul to restrict DC to 153 before overhauling the modest target in the 17th over to post its sixth win.

Salt, let off on 15, took charge of the chase. He executed some clinical clean hitting, plundering seven fours and five sixes, primarily through cut, pull and drives, in a glorious 33-ball 68.

Quickfire knock

Salt, who collected 18 runs off the sixth over, reached his fourth 50 by hammering Khaleel Ahmed for a stunning six. He added 79 with Sunil Narine in 6.1 overs to put the home side in a commanding position.

Axar Patel claimed both the openers. Narine was caught in the deep, while Salt was played on. Rinku Singh fell cheaply, but the two Iyers, Shreyas and Venkatesh, ensured victory.

Earlier, KKR bowlers struck at regular intervals to dent DC’s progress. On their return, pacers Mitchell Starc and Vaibhav Arora scalped three wickets even as the tourists plundered 66 runs in the PowerPlay.

Vaibhav asked some questions of the batters and captured two wickets. Prithvi Shaw was caught behind, while Shai Hope was bowled by a peach of a delivery.

Meanwhile, Starc got rid of the dangerous Jake Fraser-McGurk, who pulled one to Venkatesh Iyer at deep square-leg before Harshit Rana accounted for Abishek Porel.

Using the conditions

The crafty Varun and the accurate Narine combined well and enjoyed the slight turn on offer. The former began by taking the vital wicket of Rishabh Pant (27) and added two more to deny DC any scope of revival.

Pant (27), dropped by Harshit off Varun, could not capitalise on the ‘life’ he got on 18. The southpaw miscued another one to Shreyas at extra-cover.

Tristan Stubbs and impact player Kumar Kushagra were smartly caught by Salt, while Narine foxed Axar. Kuldeep Yadav (35 not out) utilised a reprieve to swing his bat to register his highest score and contribute some valuable runs.

Varun delights with a three-wkt. haul, while Vaibhav and Harshit scalp two wickets each

Scoreboard

Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw c Salt b Arora 13 Jake Fraser-McGurk c VR Iyer b Starc 12 Abishek Porel b Harshit Rana 18 Shai Hope b Arora 6 Rishabh Pant c S Iyer b Varun 27 Axar Patel b Narine 15 Tristan Stubbs c Salt b Varun 4 Kumar Kushagra c Salt b Varun 1 Kuldeep Yadav not out 34 Rasikh Salam c S Iyer b Harshit Rana 8 Lizaad Williams not out 1 Extras: (LB-4, NB-1, W-9) 14

Total: (For 9 wickets in 20 overs) 153

Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-30, 3-37, 4-68, 5-93, 6-99, 7-101, 8-111, 9-140

Kolkata Knight Riders bowling: Mitchell Starc 3-0-43-1, Vaibhav Arora 4-0-29-2, Harshit Rana 4-0-27-2, Sunil Narine 4-0-24-1, Varun Chakravarthy 4-0-16-3, Andre Russell 1-0-10-0.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Phil Salt b Axar 68 (33b, 7×4, 5×6), Sunil Narine c Fraser-McGurk b Axar 15 (10b, 3×4), Rinku Singh c Kuldeep b Williams 11 (11b, 1×4), Shreyas Iyer (not out) 33 (23b, 3×4, 1×6), Venkatesh Iyer (not out) 26 (23b, 2×4, 1×6)

Extras: (lb-2, nb-1, w-1): 4

Total: (for three wkts. in 16.3 overs): 157.

Fall of wickets: 1-79 (Narine, 6.1), 2-96 (Salt, 8.1), 3-100 (Rinku, 9.2).

Delhi Capitals bowling

Williams 3-0-38-1, Khaleel 3-0-28-0, Rasikh 2.3-0-30-0, Axar 4-0-25-2, Kuldeep 4-0-34-0.

Toss: DC; PoM: Varun

KKR won by seven wickets with 21 deliveries remaining.

A view of the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Kolkata Knight Riders’ home IPL game against Rajasthan Royals was on Tuesday advanced by a day to April 16, while Gujarat Titans-Delhi Capitals fixture in Ahmedabad was also rescheduled by the BCCI which did not give any reason for the move.

The PTI on April 1 reported that the KKR-RR tie in the 2024 Indian Premier League was set to get rescheduled due to Ram Navami, but the Board did not specify any reason for the rescheduling of matches on these two dates.

“The fixture between Kolkata Knight Riders & Rajasthan Royals, which was earlier scheduled to take place on April 17, 2024 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata will now be played a day prior on April 16, 2024.

“The Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad was earlier scheduled to host the match between Gujarat Titans & Delhi Capitals on April 16, 2024. The fixture will now be played on April 17, 2024,” the BCCI said in a statement.

It was learnt that Kolkata Police expressed its inability to provide adequate security cover for what will be KKR’s third home game of the 17th IPL season, just three days after they host the Lucknow Super Giants.

West Bengal is also set to vote on April 19 in the first phase of the seven-phase general elections. The voting in Kolkata will take place on June 1.

The CAB had suggested that the match be advanced either by a day (16 April) or pushed back by 24 hours to 18 April.

KKR is currently in Visakhapatnam for a game against Delhi Capitals on Wednesday.