IPL 2023 Match 28 Condensed Review- KKR vs. DC

The KKR preview and review series continues onward as we are heading toward the half-season mark. Match #28 in the IPL 2023 season featured the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and the Delhi Capitals (DC). The Knight Riders may be struggling at 2-3, but Delhi (0-5) has yet to win a game this season. This seems like a crucial game for both sides, as a KKR win can put them back up with the rest of the three-win teams. Having a better run rate than most would directly put them higher. Meanwhile, the Capitals will look to get a move on to avoid being eliminated from playoff contention. Let’s find out which team emerged victorious! Links to my entire series will be provided below as always.

Photo Cred: The Indian Express

Match Information and Result

Date– April 20th, 2023.

Stadium– Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi.

Photo Cred: Sporting News

Toss– DC won the toss, chose to field.

Result– DC won by four wickets (four balls remaining).

Player of the Match– Ishant Sharma (DC).

Scores– First innings: KKR 127/10 (20). Second innings: DC 128/6 (19.2).

Photo Cred: Cricket Addictor (L- J. Roy, M- Ishant, R- Russell)

Article-Specific Key

1. Batting
   1. RHB: Right-Hand Bat
   2. LHB: Left-Hand Bat
2. Bowling
   1. Seam
      1. RAM: Right-Arm Medium
      2. RAF: Right-Arm Fast
      3. RAMF: Right-Arm Medium-Fast
      4. RAFM: Right-Arm Fast-Medium
      5. LAMF: Left-Arm Medium-Fast
   2. Spin
      1. SLA: Slow Left-Arm Orthodox
      2. OB: Off Break (Right-Arm)
      3. LBG: Leg Break Googly
      4. LB: Leg Break
      5. SLW: Slow Left-Arm Wrist Spin

Pre-Match Playing XIs, Substitutes, and Impact Players

Kolkata Knight Riders

1. Venkatesh Iyer LHB, RAM
2. Litton Das (Overseas- Bangladesh) (Wicket-keeper) RHB, OB
3. Jason Roy (Overseas- represents England, born in South Africa) RHB
4. Sunil Narine (Overseas- West Indies/Trinidad and Tobago) LHB, OB
5. Nitish Rana (Captain) LHB, RAM & OB
6. Rinku Singh LHB, OB
7. Mandeep Singh RHB, RAM
8. Andre Russell (Overseas- West Indies/Jamaica) RHB, RAF
9. Varun Chakravarthy RHB, LBG
10. Umesh Yadav RHB, RAF
11. Kulwant Khejroliya LHB, LAMF

Available Subs–

• Anukul Roy LHB, SLA
• Vaibhav Arora RHB, RAFM
• David Wiese (Overseas- represents Namibia, born in and previously represented South Africa) RHB, RAMF
• Suyash Sharma RHB, LB
• Narayan Jagadeesan RHB

Impact Player selection– Anukul Roy: Replaced Venkatesh Iyer, batted at no. 9, and bowled four overs.

Photo Cred: Sportskeeda

Delhi Capitals

1. David Warner (Captain) (Overseas- Australia) LHB, LB
2. Mitchell Marsh (Overseas- Australia) RHB, RAM
3. Manish Pandey RHB, RAM
4. Phil Salt (Overseas- England) (Wicket-keeper) RHB, OB
5. Lalit Yadav RHB, OB
6. Aman Khan RHB, RAM
7. Axar Patel LHB, SLA
8. Kuldeep Yadav LHB, SLW
9. Anrich Nortje (Overseas- South Africa) RHB, RAF
10. Ishant Sharma RHB, RAFM
11. Mukesh Kumar RHB, RAM

Available Subs–

• Prithvi Shaw RHB, OB
• Yash Dhull RHB, OB
• Sarfaraz Khan RHB, LB
• Chetan Sakariya LHB, LAMF
• Ripal Patel RHB, RAMF

Impact Player selection– Prithvi Shaw: Replaced Ishant Sharma, batted at no. 2.

Photo Cred: NDTV Sports (Warner)                        Photo Cred: ESPNcricinfo (Kuldeep)

The Day I Was Dreading About…

And there we have it, our first real batting collapse. Honestly, it could not have come at a worse time. Sure, there are still eight games left in the season, but things are getting tight in the standings. Multiple teams are standing at or around six points with better form and/or team strength. The only advantage we have over them seems to be gradually slipping away with these losses: our positive net run rate (NRR).

Photo Cred: Sportskeeda

Back to the batting, only three players hit double digits today out of 11 players. The highest strike rate (SR) from our side was Russell’s 122.58. That too was a product of late shots at the absolute end of the game to even just get us to 127 runs… Another game, another sticky wicket for our batters to face. Safe to say, we have failed on both occasions now, even more so here at Arun Jaitley than at Wankhede…

Absolutely Fantastic Bowling, by Both Sides

Usually, I have always mentioned the batting here and don’t emphasize on the bowling until I get to the pros and cons. I can’t, however, ignore how good of a game this was by the bowlers for both teams! Usually, low scores like 127 are tough to be defended. The chasing team will almost always want to chip away at the target as fast as possible. That was not the situation on Thursday, as KKR’s bowlers kept them in the game until the last over of the game.

Photo Cred: Latestly                                               Photo Cred: Outlook India

For DC, four different bowlers picked up two wickets, and only one gave up more than nine runs an over. Kolkata might’ve had two guys combining for 32 runs in two overs and two balls, but the rest were sublime. Three spinners had sub-4.00 economy rates (econ), and they picked up six wickets among themselves!

My Notes

1. Varun Chakravarthy should not have come to bat. Why did they send him when we have someone like Kulwant Khejroliya, who has a 190 SR in T20s? Yes, he may have only faced 10 balls and scored 19 runs but he has power: he’s hit two sixes. Compare that to Chakravarthy, who has a 53.57 SR, has faced 56 balls, and scored only 30 runs. He took six balls to hit one run in this match.
   • Plus, not that it might have mattered, but there would also be that left-hand/right-hand combination at the crease, which is a widely-used concept.
2. Looks like the KKR management had the idea of opening Roy and Das too. I would’ve waited to debut this partnership against CSK because I was going to give Jagadeesan and Rahmanullah Gurbaz one last chance.
3. Initially, Anukul Roy as the impact sub did not seem like a good idea. However, he made up for it with his more than incredible bowling.
4. Maybe it would not have mattered but Umesh Yadav should’ve been given the last over of the game instead of Khejroliya.

The Positives and the Negatives

Kolkata Knight Riders

Pros:

1. An anchor role by Jason Roy. Based on how the game was going and how tough the wicket was to bat on, it looks like Roy did really well to adjust and just stay on as an anchor as long as he could.
2. Andre Russell is (somewhat) back. He did well to get us to 127, and I hope he can keep this up because we will take what we can get from him. Given our recent three-game stretch, we need him to fire more often… However, his 31-ball 38 was possible only because of 19 runs off the last over of the game. Before, he was struggling at 19(25).
3. Three of our bowlers kept us in this game. Chakravarthy (2/16, 4.00 econ, wicket maiden), Anukul (2/19, 4.75 econ), and Rana (2/17, 4.25 econ).
   • Rana deciding to roll his arm over was one of the best decisions he made, based on the situation of the game.
   • Anukul’s first over just yielded a run on the last ball of the over, meaning he was one ball away from a maiden over himself.
   • Honorable mention to Umesh, who only gave up six runs in his lone over. He could’ve, and should’ve, bowled some more in the game.

Photo Cred: Guerilla Cricket                          Photo Cred: SportsTiger

Cons:

1. Batting collapse. As I wrote before, only three batters got to double digits. A fourth batter was the only other person to get at least a 100 SR. That means seven other batters faced more balls than they got runs…
2. Sloppy wicket-keeping. Say what you want about Gurbaz but his issues were as a batter not as a wicket-keeper. Das’ KKR keeping debut could not have gone worse…
   • 17.2: Missed stumping- Das couldn’t collect the ball, the batter was down the pitch.
   • 18.5: Missed stumping- Das fumbled trying to get the ball, the batter out of the crease, and Das could not react in time.
3. Some additional sloppy fielding/fielding decisions.
   • 1.2: Misfield at mid-wicket, and it was to be expected. Chakravarthy was never known for his fielding skills…
   • 4.5: Square-leg could not stop the four even with his dive.
   • 14.4: Russell, at deep midwicket, let the ball through his hands. Wiese, at long-on, also could not stop it, and the ball went for four…
     • With that four, all the pressure our bowlers put on the batters let up.
   • 14.6: Axar got to hit an easy four to deep backward point because of the bad field setup. No one was there to stop it…
   • 16.4: Honorable mention, because this wasn’t necessarily sloppy. Khejroliya, at mid-wicket, could not catch a chip from Lalit.
     • A wicket here would’ve been another turning point in the game, but it wasn’t to be.
   • 19.1: Narine, at short fine, allowed an extra run to be scored after being unable to gather a ball on the bounce.
4. Narine blows hot and cold again. In Narine’s four-over spell, two overs went for three and six and two others went for 11 and 17 (he wasn’t credited for the wide, as that is an extra run).
   • For some reason, he just wanted to bowl shorter deliveries. Several of them got dispatched for fours.
5. Extras. We gave up seven extras, two of which were no-balls and three being wides. Two of the wides weren’t as costly but one of them was. The free hits resulted in a four and a two.
   • The wide that was costly was during Narine’s second over. He had already been hit for two fours by Warner before he bowled the wide, then gave up two more after…
   • One of those no-balls happened at the worst possible moment: in the last over of the game to basically make the final runs easier to be scored.
6. Kulwant Khejroliya. The guy I had been thinking would’ve been the best replacement as a seamer for Shardul Thakur ended up disappointing me the most… His first over goes for 13 runs, then he gave up seven runs in the last over trying to defend that same number. He also overstepped to allow a free hit to be made…
7. Russell’s bowling. He bowled a no-ball before Khejroliya. Gave up 12 runs in his only over of the game. Maybe a bit too harsh to include him but I am nitpicking.

Photo Cred: JSWTV.TV

Delhi Capitals

Pros:

1. Superb bowling!
   1. Ishant: 2/19 (4), 4.75 econ. PotM award to go with his performance!
   2. Kumar: 1/34 (4), 8.50 econ. A bit on the higher side, but that’s only because he gave up 19 runs in the final over of the game. Troubled Das to hit an easy top-edge.
   3. Nortje: 2/20 (4), 5.00 econ. He’s back to his usual, troublesome bowling!
      • Hope he’s ok and can recover from any pain after getting hit on the right ankle vs. Russell.
   4. Axar: 2/13 (3), 4.33 econ. Bowled Mandeep when he was trying to get going, got the dangerous Rinku out early (got both Singhs).
   5. Kuldeep: 2/15 (3), 5.00 econ. Always dangerous against his former team. He almost got yet another hat-trick against Kolkata…
      • Got the leading scorer J. Roy out on a top-edge, then got Anukul out lbw on the first ball for a golden duck (got both Roys).
2. Captain Warner leading from the front. The only batter who actually well and truly made this game his own. Finally had a good SR (139.02) and had 11 fours to his name. It’s a shame he even got out, as it seemed like he was the best chance to take Delhi home.
3. A slow surface meant a more cautious batting approach, but it was ok for some people and not others. Axar Patel and Manish Pandey stood strong to chase the target, then Lalit Yadav joined Axar.

Photo Cred: News9Live (Warner)                         Photo Cred: CricketTimes.com (Ishant)

Cons:

1. Mitchell Marsh. He gave up 25 runs in his two overs bowling, then proceeded to take nine balls to hit just two runs before getting out.
2. Lack of bowling discipline. 12 extras were given up, 11 of them being wides.
3. The batters whose cautious approaches weren’t as good:
   • Shaw: 13(11). A bad 2023 season continues for him, his worst yet… Lowest ave, lowest SR. He’s been brought in and out as an Impact Player but he has yet to make any solid impact.
   • Marsh (previously mentioned)
   • Salt: 5(3). He hit a four but then hit a ball straight to the bowler trying a chip shot. He could’ve kept going maybe, might’ve won the game sooner for DC.
   • Aman: 0(2)

Photo Cred: DNA India

The Links to My KKR Preview & Review Series

1. My Thoughts on the Kolkata Knight Riders for the IPL 2023 season (also includes the condensed preview of KKR vs. PBKS)
2. IPL 2023 Match 2 Condensed Review- KKR vs. PBKS
3. IPL 2023 Match 9 Condensed KKR Preview
4. IPL 2023 Match 9 Condensed Review- KKR vs. RCB
5. IPL 2023 Match 13 Condensed KKR Preview
6. IPL 2023 Match 13 Condensed Review- KKR vs. GT
7. IPL 2023 Match 19 Condensed KKR Preview
8. IPL 2023 Match 19 Condensed Review- KKR vs. SRH
9. IPL 2023 Match 22 Condensed KKR Preview
10. IPL 2023 Match 22 Condensed Review- KKR vs. MI
11. IPL 2023 Match 28 Condensed KKR Preview