'DC ne match haarne ki poori koshish ki' - Fans react as Delhi Capitals beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 4 wickets to get their first win of IPL 2023

DC vs KKR (Source: Twitter)

Delhi Capitals (DC) finally tasted their first win of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, defeating Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 4 wickets in a low-scoring thriller at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Thursday, April 20. In what should have ended as a one-sided game, the KKR spinners made it a nail-biting contest from the second half of DC's batting innings.

The KKR batters will be disappointed for throwing their wickets away in the powerplay. After winning the toss, DC put KKR to bat first, and Mukesh Kumar's superb second over handed the hosts their first lead by removing Litton Das. The visitors lost a total of three wickets inside the powerplay of Venkatesh Iyer and captain Nitish Rana. Jason Roy, who played his first match of the season, performed well but continued loss of wickets did not give him the freedom to bat with intent.

Mandeep Singh and Roy took KKR to reach 50-run mark, but the former was removed soon after. Roy also departed after hitting 43 runs off 39 balls in the 15th over, before Sunil Narine and Rinku Singh were dismissed. The target for DC should have been less than 110, but Andre Russel played a good cameo in the end and scored 38 off 31, taking the team to 127. Veteran pacer Ishant Sharma, Nortje and Kuldeep Yadav were superb for the hosts, as the trio took two wickets each.

However, the KKR spinners gave the DC batters a tough fight as they took the match till the final over. David Warner got off to a good start for the Capitals, while opener Prithvi Shaw again had a disappointing performance and was dismissed for 13 runs in the fifth over. DC lost Mitchell Marsh when they were in a good position in the 7.2 overs at 62, and the game has followed a similar path to KKR's first innings since then.

Ankul Roy's dismissal of Philip Salt in the first ball of the ninth over cost DC another wicket and forced Warner to slow down his batting tempo. The skipper eventually got out after batting brilliantly for 57 off 41 balls. Manish Pandey scored 21 runs off 23 balls but could not last long. However, Axar Patel and Lalit Yadav held their nerve in the end as they remained unbeaten to record their team's first win of the season.

Here's how fans reacted to DC's win:

Delhi Capitals took two days to get 2 points from one game.#DCvKKR #DCvsKKR

— Nikhil 🏏 (@CricCrazyNIKS) April 20, 2023

Delhi simply just dont want to win.. it looks like that. Itna boring bana diya h match ko.

— Aditya (@aditya10on9) April 20, 2023

Unreal scripting, they didn't ended match earlier to save broadcaster from loss

— GOATROHIT45 (@sachinq518) April 20, 2023

Both teams were trying too hard to lose, in the end KKR won 😁

— Bhupender Thakur (@MisterBeeTee) April 20, 2023

Umesh should have bowled the last over

— Utsav 💔 (@utsav045) April 20, 2023

Ohh bhai DC took 116 balls to chase 128 😭😭🤣

— sᴀᴏᴏᴅ (@Kohlistiano) April 20, 2023

Is this fixing or wt, not trying to hit even in 19th over

— Jhonny jhonny yes papa (@Naveenb135) April 20, 2023

After all those tight and thrilling overs. What was that last over ? 🤣

— Sagar Paudel (@Sagar210000) April 20, 2023