Five-star KKR spinner Chakravarthy cuts through Capitals

The Capitals would have returned to the top of the table with a win at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, but KKR consigned them to back-to-back defeats to give their own play-off hopes a major boost.

Nitish Rana (81 off 53 balls) and Sunil Narine (64 from 32) put on 115 to get Eoin Morgan's side up to an imposing 194-6.

South Africa pacemen Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada - the leading wicket-taker in the tournament - took two wickets apiece, but Rana and Narine shifted the momentum after Kolkata had slipped to 42-3.

The brilliant Pat Cummins (3-17) put the Knight Riders in control when he got rid of openers Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan cheaply.

Chakravarthy then demolished the middle order with a magnificent exhibition of spin bowling, taking 5-20 from his four overs as the Capitals could only make 135-9 in their reply.

Captain Shreyas Iyer (47) gave Delhi hope, but they lost seven wickets for 59 runs as Chakravarthy claimed the first five-wicket haul of this year's IPL.

That's that from Match 42. @KKRiders win by 59 runs.#Dream11IPL pic.twitter.com/QfctclPHdn

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) October 24, 2020

Nortje (2-27) removed Shubman Gill in his first over and struck again in his second, giving Rahul Tripathi no chance to keep out a searing yorker.

Rabada (2-33) got in on the act by dismissing Dinesh Karthik, but a century stand between Rana and Narine got KKR up to a challenging total.

Narine smashed four sixes as Ravichandran Ashwin went for 45 off his three overs, while Rana struck 13 fours and a six in a 10th IPL half-century he dedicated to his late father-in-law, who passed away earlier this week.

Cummins set the tone by getting a sharp first delivery to nip back and hit Rahane bang in front, then followed that up by removing Dhawan's off stump in his second over.

Iyer and Rishabh Pant put on 63 for the third wicket, but they were unable to score at the required rate as the Knight Riders' attack bowled with impressive discipline.