KKR vs DC

The road to the finals are ready, the Playoffs are up next as the league stage comes to a close. RCB, GT, SRH, RR, who's your money on to lift their second trophy? The tournament now takes a day's pause and so do we before coming back with the action on Tuesday (May 26). It has been a pleasure bringing you all the action, we hope you will join us in the playoffs as well. Till then, this is Sourabh Agrawal taking your leave on behalf of Bala and the rest of the team here at Sportskeeda. Rest well, take care!

Kuldeep Yadav is the Player of the Match for his 3/29, here is what he said: To be very honest I wasn;t happy before this match because we wanted to have a great season as a team but could not finish in the top-4. Personally, I did not have a great season, I was expecting more from myself and could not deliver this season. After the last game, I went back home and worked with my coach. Played a game over there, worked on small things that you can easily forget in white-ball cricket

(what improvements did he make?) I was bowling a bit too open-chested and using less of my body. That is when the T20 batters can hit you down the ground. Important to use the body and vary the pace, lovely to see the dip that I got and it was a lovely game for me. I was very clear with my plans, I saw the wicket in the first innings, it was slow. The wicket of Rinku was perfect example, I slowed it down and he went for it straightaway.

(on missing the hat-trick) It happens in the game, part and parcel of the game. Pleased with how I bowled. (going back to the basics) My coach was straightforward when I spoke to him, he said that you need to spin the ball, I understand that the batters are going after you but you have got to try to deceive the batter and get them out

Axar Patel (DC captain): The way we have played the last three games, very proud of the team. There was no thought that we were out of the season, proud of the fight. (learnings from the season) Firstly, need to accept your mistakes and that is when you can make improvements. It was a matter of one match here or there, had it been different things could have been much better. I have learnt that you need to be in a good frame of mind because at the end you need to handle everything at take decisions, I tend to relax myself first and then only I can make better decision. I feel that SRH are a strong team in the playoffs because of their top-3

Lungi Ngidi (3 for 27): "Tonight was good. We've had an up-and-down season. It makes it easier to look back and see where we went wrong. Just to minimise the small errors next time. It has taken years to build the confidence to bowl it (slower ball). I wanted to bowl those yorkers and I was able to execute them on the right line and length today. It makes things a lot easier when I can vary my pace and change the length while still landing the yorker. That gives me a bit more variation as a bowler. When you play in certain conditions and do well, it naturally builds your confidence. It’s similar to batters. Once they get one good knock, everything seems to fall into place. For me, that World Cup performance showed that I could succeed in these conditions. So I came into the IPL with a lot of confidence and just wanted to continue from where I left off. At one stage, it looked like we might finish right at the bottom of the table, and pride became a big talking point for us. We knew we weren’t a bottom-of-the-table team if you looked at the squad on paper. When you see the performances we’ve been capable of producing, you start thinking about the small moments where things could have gone differently. Maybe if we had done certain things better, we could have been in the playoffs. So yes, we’re definitely happy to end the season on this note. (On Mitchell Starc's catch) He’s definitely making us step our game up. One thing I’ve noticed about him is that he’s an absolute athlete. I’ve seen him run around in the field all game and then still come back and bowl 140-kph yorkers. Watching that definitely gives you something to learn from. Playing alongside another international player like him gives you extra confidence too. Seeing him perform like that just put a big smile on my face."

Ajinkya Rahane (Kolkata Knight Riders captain): "I was batting really well. I tried my chances. Just want to say the kind of season we had, really proud of each and everyone. The situation we were in, from there keeping the league alive. I'm proud of each and every individual. They put that effort going out there. We didn't qualify, which is disappointing. At the moment, guys have their commitments. We will just head home now. We'll then probably connect over the call and have discussions. For me, just couple of days off. I'm going to play my local league in Mumbai."

11:25 PM local time and IST: MATCH SUMMMARY

Delhi Capitals (203/5 in 20 overs) beat Kolkata Knight Riders (163 all-out in 18.4 overs) by 40 runs

KL Rahul 60(30) | Lungi Ngidi 3/27(3.4)
Ajinkya Rahane 63(39) | Saurabh Dubey 2/28(4)

There we have it then, 2 convicing points for Delhi Capitals to round up a 6th place finish for the season and they have completely outplayed KKR at the Eden Gardens. KKR will finish with 13 points and just below DC at number 7, they have collapsed dramatically from 128/3 to 163 all-out losing their last 7 wickets for just 35 runs in 5 and a half overs

Kuldeep started the slip with the wicket of the well-set KKR skipper Rahane and should have had a hat-trick in all fairness had it not been for a dropped catch by the wicketkeeper Porel. However, his two wickets in two balls triggered a massive collapse and it just came crashing down for the home side who were bowled out in the end

Rahane was the key batter, he started the season with a fifty and then took the whole of the season to get a second one and he looked pretty convincing till the time he was out there. However, there were just not enough contributions from the other batters. Three batters, Allen, Pandey and Powell got into the 20s but could not carry on and that is simply not good enough chasing down 200+

Ngidi was brilliant with the ball too, he got the first couple of wickets in the innings when Axar called upon him at different times. All in all, a clinical performance from the Capitals as they win against KKR for the first time after 2023

18.4 Lungi Ngidi to Varun Chakravarthy, OUT! That's that! Delhi Capitals win this comprehensively! Slower ball full outside off. Chakravarthy swings hard and ends up slicing it to Axar at cover

18.3 Lungi Ngidi to Varun Chakravarthy, slower ball full outside the off-stump. Swing and a miss. Fumble by the keeper but they don't take the single

Well, well! The number 10 turns down the single with number 11 at the other end. Bragging rights? Did not ever think in my wildest dreams that I will see Varun Chakaravarthy turn down a single

18.1 Lungi Ngidi to Varun Chakravarthy, FOUR! Low full toss angling in at pace. Chakravarthy swings hard and gets a thick inside edge to fineleg

17.6 Mitchell Starc to Saurabh Dubey, FOUR! Off the outside edge! Yorker on the off-stump tailing away late. Dubey hangs his bat out and the ball races away off the outside edge. No chance for Porel behind the stumps