New captain Shreyas Iyer's 93* off 40 blows Kolkata Knight Riders away | Cricket

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Delhi Daredevils 219 for 4 (Iyer 93, Shaw 62, Munro 33) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 164 for 9 (Russell 44, Gill 37, Mishra 2-23) by 55 runs

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Tait: Daredevils never took the foot off the gas

Thrusting a young player into a leadership position can go either way. Burdened by captaincy, a player's performance in their main role can temporarily slump, as was the case with Aiden Markram during South Africa's ODI series against India earlier this year. Or the confidence of that position can buoy, and therefore boost, a player's performance, like Shreyas Iyer in Delhi on Friday. He smashed an unbeaten 40-ball 93 to lead Delhi Daredevils to a resounding 55-run victory against Kolkata Knight Riders.

After a strong start, Iyer backed his hitting ability at No. 3. Primarily with a full face of the bat, he first accumulated before gradually increasing his tempo to the point where he took 28 runs off the final over, bowled by Shivam Mavi. He hit 10 sixes, four in the final over, powering Daredevils to 219, the biggest total of the season. Such was Iyer's proficiency with using the straight bat that he scored 77 - 83% of his runs - in front of square.

Daredevils' only worry in their defence was a 64-run sixth-wicket partnership, off 36 balls, between Andre Russell and Shubman Gill. Russell smashed 44 off 30 balls, 35 in the arc between long-off and midwicket, and his form and ability forced Iyer to use his best bowlers earlier than he would have liked. Eventually, Daredevils had sufficient confidence and runs to play with, easing to their second win of the season, in their seventh game.

A rare Powerplay blitz

With Gautam Gambhir dropped, Daredevils' openers Prithvi Shaw and Colin Munro could adopt their own template. Before Friday, they had played just three games between them this season, which meant they carried less baggage than the rest of a floundering batting line-up.

The Powerplay produced 57 runs and ten boundaries. Daredevils' average before this game was 48 runs and 6.66 boundaries. The start set the rest of the innings up. The openers added 59 in the first seven overs, Munro scoring 33 off 18 and Shaw going on to make 62 off 44. Between them, they faced a little over half the innings and scored 95.

Increasing the tempo

In Rishabh Pant and Glenn Maxwell, Daredevils arguably had more valuable scoring resources, but Iyer backed his own hitting ability and walked in after Shivam Mavi bowled Munro. With Iyer utilising a few deliveries to get set, Shaw increased his strike rate with a flurry of elegant boundaries off Mitchell Johnson: a wristy whip over midwicket, a lofted chip over extra-cover and a slapped six over square leg.

Shaw was eventually bowled hoicking across the line, much like his dismissal in Daredevils' last game against Kings XI Punjab. The second-wicket pair had added 68 in seven overs. Iyer then took over, scoring 61 off the last 18 balls of his innings, hitting eight of them for six. He had a bit of help from the fielders, with both Robin Uthappa and Nitish Rana spilling potential catches over the boundary.

Beaten for pace

Knight Riders banked on their powerful top order in a steep chase, but they were undone by clever use of the short ball. First, Glenn Maxwell fired his in darts flat, preventing Lynn from getting underneath the length. He was bowled off the inside edge.

Robin Uthappa was hurried for pace, splicing a pull to midwicket off Trent Boult. Sunil Narine fell to a Boult bouncer for the second time this season, backing away and lobbing a catch to cover. Nitish Rana fended a brute of a bouncer back to Avesh Khan. At that point, Knight Riders were 46 for 4 in the sixth over, with the game all but done.

Nikhil Kalro is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

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Iyer's Daredevils take aim at wounded CSK

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Big Picture

On Friday, Delhi Daredevils did not look like the side that had just one win in six games. They did not look like they have had troubles with their batting line-up this season. They looked like they were a team that was strong not just on paper. It seemed like they were announcing their late but not-too-late arrival.

Shreyas Iyer, Daredevils' new captain was their pillar in the match against Kolkata Knight Riders. He took his bottom-placed side to the highest total of this season as he made the highest score by a captain on debut. He effortlessly took on the pacers and the wristspinners as his ex-captain Gautam Gambhir cheered him on from the dugout. Even his move to drop Gambhir and give Colin Munro and Prithvi Shaw a go as the new opening pair worked wonders.

Chennai Super Kings: lost to Mumbai Indians by eight wickets, beat Royal Challengers by five wickets, beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by four runs

Daredevils: beatKnight Riders by 55 runs, lost to Kings XI by 4 runs, lost to Royal Challengers by six wickets

Daredevils will be flying to Pune to meet Chennai Super Kings, who were most recently handed an eight-wicket thrashing by a refreshed Mumbai Indians.

While Dhoni offered the usual "we were 10-15 short" quote after the loss, their bigger issue was the bowling. They have conceded at an economy of 9.38 after the Powerplay, the worst this season after Royal Challengers Bangalore. They also have the second worst economy rate in the death overs.

Shreyas Iyer has 244 runs from seven innings so far in IPL 2018, at a phenomenal strike rate of 162.7 ESPNcricinfo Ltd

So far this season, their batting has bailed them out whenever their bowlers had let them down. Their loss against Mumbai might not have disturbed their place in the table, but they have a lot of contemplating to do on their bowling inefficiencies in just a day's time.

In the news

Deepak Chahar is out of action for at least two weeks following a hamstring injury. Lungi Ngidi, who had flown back to South Africa following the death of his father, has rejoined the squad.

Strategy punt

In the previous game, Mumbai rightly introduced Krunal Pandya in the fifth over to take advantage of Shane Watson's struggle against slow left-arm spinners. In the IPL since 2015, Watson has been dismissed 12 times by slow left-armers and averages just 9.3 against them.

Super Kings could rope in David Willey in place of the out-of-form Sam Billings. Billings has scored just 24 runs in his last four innings and has also shown signs of struggle against spinners, giving away his wicket three times to them. Willey scores at a strike rate of 170.6 in the middle overs and 157.5 in the death overs in T20s since 2015. They could also use his left-arm inswingers to add a new dimension to their pace attack. He has taken 43 wickets at 24.3 in Powerplays while maintaining an economy of 7.4 in the same time period.

Deepak Chahar and co. have struck in the Powerplay, but Super Kings have often lost the plot after that ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Stats that matter

• Ravindra Jadeja has had a poor run this season, continuing his trend of declining influence on results in recent IPLs. He has bowled just 10 overs in seven games this season and has picked just one wicket as compared to the 2015 season where he picked 11 wickets in 15 innings. However, it is interesting to note that in CSK's two losses this season, Dhoni had not bowled Jadeja.

• Shreyas Iyer will be looking to score his fourth consecutive 50-plus score. Only Virat Kohli (4) and Virender Sehwag (5) have posted more than three consecutive half-centuries in the IPL.

• Glenn Maxwell is known to have gone big against CSK in the past. He has 204 runs in four innings and a strike rate of 202 against them.

Fantasy picks

Iyer for his red-hot form. Maxwell would be another pick for his record against CSK. Suresh Raina has been in the thick of the action for CSK this edition, so he would be an automatic pick too.

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