Kolkata Knight Riders’s opener and right-arm off-spinner Sunil Narine scalped three crucial Delhi Capitals wickets — Faf du Plessis, Axar Patel and Tristan Stubbs — in his quota of four overs and gave away just 29 runs. He also scored 27 runs off 16 balls in an all-round show that helped KKR hand hosts DC their fourth loss in 10 matches, relegating them to fourth position. 

Helpful surface for spinners

In fact, not just Narine, the slow surface also helped KKR’s spinners Anukul Roy (1-27), Varun Chakravarthy (2-39) and Narine (3-29), who ensured DC could not get a big partnership going during their chase of 204 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Tuesday. DC managed only 190-9 and KKR won by 14 runs. For DC, du Plessis top-scored with 62 off 45, hitting seven fours and two sixes. Skipper Axar also did well, scoring 43 off 23. Middle-order batsman Vipraj Nigam addded a valuable 38 off 19 giving them a sliver of hope, but after he lost his stumps to Andre Russell, none of the late middle-order batters could fire for DC.