Chakravarthy, Salt propel KKR to seven-wicket win over DC

Spinner Varun Chakravarthy worked his magic to claim three important wickets before Phil Salt's scintillating half-century as Kolkata Knight Riders secured a convincing seven-wicket win over Delhi Capitals in the IPL here on Monday.

Chakravarthy (3/16) shone in the middle overs following Vaibhav Arora's fine start (2/29) that limited Delhi to a modest 153/9 after Rishabh Pant opted to bat.

On a two-paced pitch where most batters struggled, Salt capitalised on a reprieve on 15 to smash a 33-ball 68.

He hammered five sixes and seven fours in a 79-run opening wicket partnership with Sunil Narine that came off just 38 balls.

Skipper Shreyas Iyer (33 not out; 23b) and Venkatesh Iyer (26 not out; 23b) then completed the chase as KKR cantered home in 16.3 overs to improve their net run-rate to 1.096.

KKR now have the best runrate in the 10-team standings as they consolidated their position at second place with 12 points from nine matches.

DC's Lizard Williams will surely want to forget this outing. He bore the brunt of a wayward opening over that yielded 23 runs to set the tone for KKR's easy chase.