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 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.
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.
While speaking during the post-match press conference, Chakravarthy thanked co-owner Shah Rukh Khan and the team management for giving him a pep talk ahead of the DC game, which helped him find his mojo back.
Chakravarthy said, "Shah Rukh bhai came to me yesterday and told me not to self-doubt, this IPL has been crazy so, don't take anything personally".