DC batters implode in a fifth successive home defeat as Finn Allen’s century shows hosts the way in KKR’s eight-wicket win at Kotla.
The mathematical equations could be marginally alive. But the harsh bearings of the recent batting slump have staggered Delhi Capitals’ season before their eyes, in their own backyard.
The result was another breezy chase for the visitors. Worse, a marauding Allen even tore their vaunted bowling attack to shreds with a 47-ball ton studded with 10 sixes.
KL Rahul had batted out the full 20 overs the last time he was on this strip. He walked back unbeaten, on 152, the highest-ever score by an Indian in the league.
On Friday, Rahul hung back and waited for the loose lengths from the Kolkata Knight Riders spinners until the slowness began to jerk the bat in the powerplay. Hard hands, a stiff bottom grip and a forced slog proved his early undoing, slowly unravelling the now familiar script. Even as Pathum Nissanka implied positive timing, warping the bowlers with his pick-up pulls and flicks, the disintegration had quietly set in. Caught between gears, the top five receded within 11 overs for a third successive innings, underscoring a worrying pattern as each batter outdid the other with erring cross-batted attempts.
As Sunil Narine ambled in to bowl out his fourth in the 15th over, Ashutosh Sharma remained wounded on the back foot. The stumps needed immense guarding, when braver teams in the upper half of the standings have played with utmost abandon. At 98 for five, inserted to bat first on a slow pitch, the last recognised batting pair without squandering a batting Impact Sub was in dogged survival mode. Nine runs had trickled in in the previous four overs. The whiff of another full-blown collapse had blanketed the Kotla grounds. Ashutosh’s partner, his skipper Axar Patel, was reeling in his own crisis within a crisis in repeat mode. After six failures, the left-hander was now scrounging for a release, the first free-flowing knock of the season. Batting on six off 16 deliveries, a revival seemed a stretch in this form and temper.
#KKR choking the #DC batting 😲
A run of 38 balls without conceding a boundary 🫡
Glimpses of their brilliance ▶️https://t.co/zgWmPuXnrm#TATAIPL | #KhelBindaas | #DCvKKR | @KKRiders pic.twitter.com/7y6B6rZF2N
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 8, 2026
Ashutosh hung in, dabbed out deliveries from the depth of the crease even as Narine scuttled one in sharply onto his back pad. The attritional playbook was anything but the flavour of a freakishly high-scoring season. On the devious Delhi surface that had played out in stark contrast to their wishes, DC had little alternative but to bat out time and the tricky overs. An opening came in the form of a limping Varun Chakaravarthy in the 16th over. Struggling to see through the six deliveries, Chakaravarthy sprayed balls into the slot to Ashutosh’s liking. Three hard smites to the fence had restored confidence, but Delhi still needed unrelenting striking from both ends. Axar had to connect. He had played out 20 deliveries, his longest knock of the year. He had to heave a dug-in short ball now in the 18th over, but a fine grab at deep mid-wicket had denied his first six of the season. A sixth single-digit dismissal in eight innings, the captain’s distending struggles had translated to the entire Delhi scoresheet again. Even Ashutosh’s innovative parries, an upper-cut and reverse-ramp for sixes at the death, could not hoist the hosts to a fighting finish, closing at 142 for eight.
Raining sixes
While several parts have fallen in place in their three recent wins, the opening pair was still nagging KKR, who had sifted through multiple pairs before settling back on Finn Allen and Rahane. The hard-hitting Kiwi still had to put in a significant score after six indifferent outings. A comfortable chase in hand, Allen jogged to his first IPL half-century in 32 balls before unleashing an otherworldly assault.
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The third-wicket stand with Cameron Green was a schooling for the Delhi batters, a harder pounding on the poor lengths from their spinners. After scooping Mitchell Starc for a six to reach his fifty, Allen kicked on the belligerent mode that had lit up the Big Bash League and the T20 World Cup with centuries earlier this year.
THREE IN A ROW 💥💥💥
🎥 Finn Allen finding his rhythm and smashing three consecutive sixes 👊💜
Updates ▶️ https://t.co/NaWLphmJKY#TATAIPL | #KhelBindaas | #DCvKKR | @KKRiders pic.twitter.com/ov5Skgs2Et
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 8, 2026
A devastating century, a first in the IPL in only seven innings since debut, was sealed within the next 15 deliveries. Eight sixes sped off Allen’s big blade in this sequence. As Kuldeep Yadav and Vipraj Nigam fed a diet of short balls, Allen crammed them far back into the mid-wicket and long-off stands that suffered from another dismal Delhi capitulation.
Brief Scores: DC 142/8 in 20 ovs (Pathum Nissanka 50; Kartik Tyagi 2/25) lost to KKR 147/2 in 14.2 overs (Finn Allen 100 n.o, Cam Green 33 n.o).
