Delhi Capitals crash to another defeat at home

New Delhi: There is never a good time for teams to lose momentum in a competition like the IPL where matches come thick and fast, but Delhi Capitals (DC) losing steam in the second half of the league feels even worse.

The home team has had a horrid run at home -- they came into Tuesday’s contest against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on the back of two losses in their last three home games -- and the 14-run reversal to Ajinkya Rahane’s men certainly put them on thin ice as far as holding their place in the top four is concerned.

KKR, meanwhile, are already in the must-win scenario and the win against DC keeps their playoff hopes alive. DC, though, can only blame themselves for the position they are in.

Chasing 204 on a true batting track under lights, DC batters, barring Faf du Plessis and skipper Axar Patel and some late fireworks from Vipraj Nigam, found a way to bungle up.

KKR’s spin twins Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine came to the fore once again with a combined haul of five wickets as DC kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

Du Plessis (62 off 45 balls, 7X4, 2X6) played the lone hand for the hosts and put on a vital 76-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Axar, but once Narine removed them and Tristan Stubbs in the space of 10 runs, the writing was on the wall for the home side.

Bowling first after winning the toss, DC did well to contain KKR to 204/9. That was about 15 more than Axar had bargained for at the toss and appeared about 20 short at the innings break considering the turbocharged start that Narine and Rahmanullah Gurbaz gave them.

Gurbaz started the innings with couple of fours off Michell Starc and Narine wasted no time to chime in, depositing Dushmantha Chameera over long-on on the first ball of the second over. With KKR plundering 25 runs in that over and pitch playing markedly better than the previous game, the visitors looked set for a challenging total.

Skipper Rahane joined the fun soon, cracking a couple of delightful boundaries through the off-side off Mukesh Kumar as KKR collected 79 in the Powerplay for the loss of Gurbaz.

DC began to pull things back after Powerplay with leg-spinner Nigam trapping Narine plumb in front of the wicket in the seventh over and Axar’s arm ball getting Rahane on the back foot.

The onus to rebuild fell on young Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Venkatesh Iyer, and the former took the challenge head-on, hoisting Nigam for delightful back- to-back sixes in the 14-run ninth.

Axar hit back immediately, castling Iyer in the next over. The innings threatened to meander away even as the big-hitting duo of Rovman Powell and Andre Russell waited for their turn in the dugout.

Rinku and Raghuvanshi then sought to rebuild, making up for quiet overs with occasional hits to the fence. Kuldeep’s third over -- innings’ 15th -- went for 17 runs as Rinku hit him for a six and two fours. KKR scored 80/3 in the middle overs (overs 7-15) with DC’s spin trio of Kuldeep, Nigam, and Axar pulling things back.

With DC conceding just 45 runs in the last five overs and accounting for five KKR wickets, the momentum seemed to have shifted in the favour of the home side. But Anukul Roy, playing his first match of the season, struck on second ball of DC innings to send back Abishek Porel to put KKR on top straightaway. DC lost Karun Nair and KL Rahul cheaply, and could never really arrest the slide.