Three defeats, each from winnable positions, and only one victory, via a last-minute Super Over finish, in New Delhi has exposed more than a few problems for this side. Despite a potent spin attack, their batters themselves struggle to unleash in the middle overs against spin. KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav, both of whom started the tournament expertly but have now tailored off at the worst point of time. And their pacers are failing to contain the runs at important junctures. All this has combined to make them struggle at the Kotla.

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With a brilliant all-round display with bat, ball, and in the field, Sunil Narine would boss DC and exploit their weaknesses, as KKR, without being at their collective best, rolled to the victory to keep their chances alive to reach the playoffs.

Finish-line stumble

A 205-run chase may have seemed like a mammoth task but it actually came about after a recovery from their bowlers. Having felt like they restricted KKR after their blistering start, erring in their own powerplay looked to be costly for the home side.

Abishek Porel departed from the second ball of the innings, Karun Nair got caught leg before by Vaibhav Arora, and a sloppy run out, executed by Narine with his typical nonchalance, saw KL Rahul depart cheaply, reducing DC to 60/3 by the seventh over.

A commendable recovery was spearheaded by Faf du Plessis and was well-supported by skipper Axar Patel, who, after a stellar bowling performance, picked his spots in fine fashion to end his brilliant all-round display with a 23-ball 43. It was after his dismissal that DC’s decline began, orchestrated by Narine.

Axar lobbed a quicker off-cutter straight to extra cover to bring an end to his innings. Tristan Stubbs was equally perplexed by the Trinidadian’s tricks. In the same over, he would lose his stumps to a lovely offbreak, the length held back slightly into deceiving the South African with its trajectory and missing it completely. In the next over, Narine nabbed the important one, drawing Du Plessis – who was under scoring pressure – into an ill-timed heave that was caught at deep midwicket.

No heroics were found by DC’s late order despite Vipraj Nigam’s late cameo, eventually losing without giving too much of a scare to KKR’s bowlers at the death. The home side would be left to rue another missed two points as their slide down the table continues – they will be out of the playoff places if Punjab Kings (PBKS) win on Wednesday – and their inability to win at home has been a major part of the problem.

Explosive start

After winning the toss and predictably picking to chase, DC were on the back foot early. Unlike the dry, sluggish surface that was laid out in the home side’s six-wicket defeat to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) two days prior, this was a truer surface where the ball held up well, and the outfield was lightning quick. The result was a shellacking for their new-ball bowlers.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Narine hit streaky, but ultimately effective, innings, pumping sixes when they found the middle of the bat, and seeing their leading edges cross the small boundaries of this ground to silence its capacity crowd. Narine, in particular, looked in form in the opening stages. He milked 25 runs from the second over bowled by Dushamantha Chameera, clearing his front leg on virtually every delivery, looking to tonk anything over-pitched.

Later, Axar and Kuldeep were expected to apply the spin squeeze in the near-perfect manner they had done in for DC on plenty of occasions this year. The former dismissed Rahane, who had looked silky smooth until then, and then got Venkatesh Iyer caught too, finishing a tight spell of 2/27 that seemed to have turned off the leaking tap of runs.

While Kuldeep had an off day, being targeted by Rinku Singh who hit him for two fours a a six through the line down the ground, newbie leggie Vipraj Nigam filled the void with a tight 18th over, in which he returned with the wicket of Rinku and conceded only 6 runs.

Starc rounded out a solid 20th over in which DC picked up three wickets in as many balls – which included a stunning, full-tilt diving catch from Chameera at deep backward square leg. It meant that DC leaked only 36 runs in the last four overs, likely saving 15-20-odd runs. Ultimately, KKR had enough despite a poor finish. Such was the lacklustre performance from the home side this evening.

Brief Scores of DC vs KKR: KKR 204/9 in 20 overs (A Raghuvanshi 44 off 32, Rinku Singh 36 off 25; M Starc 3/43) beat DC 190/9 in 20 overs (F du Plessis 62 off 45, A Patel 43 off 23; S Narine 29/3) by 14 runs.