Openers David Warner and Prithvi Shaw were at their explosive best as Delhi Capitals completed a comfortable win over Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League on Sunday.
The left-right opening combination put together 93 inside nine overs to set the foundation for a massive first innings score of 215-5 in Mumbai.
Warner smashed 61 from 45 balls with the help of six fours and two sixes, while Shaw was even more aggressive, hitting 51 from 29 balls with seven fours and two sixes.
Kolkata's premier pace bowlers Umesh Yadav and Pat Cummins went for more than 12 runs an over. Containment became difficult, even against lower order batsmen Axar Patel (22 off 14) and Shardul Thakur (29 from 11), as the Capitals crossed the 200-run mark with ease.
The total would have been even bigger, but for some fine spin bowling by Kolkata's Sunil Narine, who finished with 2-21 from his four overs and accounted for the dangerous Rovman Powell.
Kolkata's chase got off to a terrible start when opener Ajinkya Rahane survived three close calls in the first over, was repeatedly hit on the pads and even edged one behind which Delhi - surprisingly - failed to appeal for.
Captain Shreyas Iyer scored a defiant fifty but wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav cut short his stay, deceiving the batsman completely to have him stumped after a six the previous ball.
Yadav then broke through the lower order to return figures of 4-35 that completed a 44-run win against the table toppers. Seamer Thakur took 2-30 to go with his quick runs earlier in the match.
Knight Riders captain Iyer admitted his team ran out of ideas, especially after a strong start to Delhi's batting.
"They got off to a really quick start. We were a bit clueless what to do. They built on a really good partnership at the start, and carried that till the tenth over," Iyer aid.
"It looked like a good batting pitch. We made a decision [to bowl first], and that didn't work out well."
