Finn Allen smashed his way to his first Indian Premier League century as he powered Kolkata Knight Riders to their fourth consecutive victory. KKR beat Delhi Capitals by eight wickets as Allen’s unbeaten 100 in 47 balls helped them chase down a target of 143 with 34 balls to spare. Allen had found the going difficult for much of the early part of his innings, dragging himself to 18 in 20 balls. However, the Kiwi batsman then smashed as many as 10 sixes and five fours to get to the mark.
Earlier, KKR’s spinners choked the life out of the DC batters as the hosts dragged themselves to a score of 142/8 in 20 overs. KKR had as many as five different wicket-takers. Anukul Roy and Kartik Tyagi took two each while Vaibhav Arora, Sunil Narine and Cameron Green got solitary wickets. Narine was the star of the show despite having only one wicket, conceding just 17 runs in his four overs.
AS IT HAPPENED | DC vs KKR
Allen opened the batting with captain Ajinkya Rahane. The latter was going at a good click, cruising to 13 in nine balls, when he was run out at the non-striker’s end due to a mix-up between the openers. Allen then saw Angkrish Raghuvanshi being bowled in a rather bizarre manner, with the ball bouncing off his gloves after he missed a sweep, and then darting back to take his stumps.
At the end of the powerplay, Allen had scored just 20 runs in 17 balls. He then hit a four and a six off consecutive deliveries in the next over and that seemed to set him off. Allen reached 50 with a six in 32 balls after which he upped the ante even more. He hit eight sixes over the course of the next three overs and finished the game off in style for KKR.
