Mohammad Abdullah, Staff Reporter

Varun Chakravarthy returned with a figure of 5-20 after Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine played fluent knocks as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) inflicted second successive defeat on Delhi Capitals (DC) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match on Saturday.

Riding on Rana’s blitzkrieg 53-ball 81, Kolkata posted a huge total of 194/6 before Chakravarthy-led bowling attack thwarted all of the Delhi’s attempt to overhaul the winning target.

They were stopped at 135/9 in their allotted 20 overs, thus giving KKR a 59-run victory.

Pacer Pat Cummins, who triggered the slide, gave Kolkata first breakthrough by dismissing Ajinkya Rahane before the wickets on the first ball.

In his second over, Cummins rattled the stumps of Shikhar Dhawan, who scored two consecutive centuries in the previous matches, to push Delhi on the back foot.

Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant kept the scorecard ticking with watchful innings to take DC past fifty in the eighth over. The duo completed a 50-run partnership in the 10th over as DC moved to 64/2 at the halfway stage of the chase. But they consumed too many deliveries and the asking rate sky-rocketed, which put the pressure on the batsmen to come.

Delhi needed another 135 runs in 10 overs with just seven wickets in hands. Chakravarthy ripped through the middle order to wreak havoc.

He got rid of Pant to make it 76-3 in 11.3 overs. Pant decided to take on Chakravarthy and was holed out in the deep. The mystery spinner struck again in his next over and dismissed Hetmyer and Shreyas Iyer in quick successions.

Iyer holed out to Nagarkoti while Hetmyer was caught by Tripathi, both on the long on. Hetmyer, who replaced Pant in the middle, tonked the fourth ball he faced for a six before becoming the second victim of Chakravarthy.

After that Delhi kept on losing the wickets at regular intervals and could never recover. Chakravarthy was so clinical that only one of the last five batsmen could manage to reach a double-figure mark.

The mystery spinner continued his mesmerizing spell as he became the first bowler to pick a five-wicket haul in the 2020 edition of the tournament with the dismissals of Marcus Stoinis and Axar Patel in the 16th over.

After uprooting the timbers of Patel, he had Stoinis caught by Rahul Tripathi, reducing Delhi to 112-7 to leave them in tatters. Lockie Ferguson picked one wicket while Cummins took three wickets conceding 17 runs as Kolkata restricted Delhi to 135/9 and sealed their sixth win of the season.

Earlier, Kolkata got off to a stuttering start as they lost the first wicket with just 11 runs on the board. Shubman Gill got out in the second over as Nortje gave DC their first breakthrough.

The right-arm pace struck for the second time in the powerplay as he clean bowled Tripathi to make it 35-2. In the eighth over, Kolkata lost their third wicket after pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada had Dinesh Karthik caught behind the wickets.

But Rana was standing on the other end like a rock. He also kept the score board moving to keep the pressure off. Narine was the next man to walk out to bat and he counterattacked. He took Kolakata past fifty, hitting a six and a four off R Ashwin in the ninth over.

The duo added a valuable 115 runs for the fourth wicket in just nine overs as they lighted up the Abu Dhabi Stadium with some firework. Rana then brought up his second half-century of the season, hitting a four on the final ball of the 13th over.