Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), who were losing continuously at the beginning of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026, have now scored a four-win series. KKR kept their playoff hopes alive by thrashing Delhi Capitals (DC) on Friday (May 8). In the 51st match of the season played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, the team captained by Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and decided to bowl first and restricted DC to 142 runs. After this, with the help of Finn Allen’s explosive century, the target was achieved in just 14.2 overs.

Explosive opener Allen, who came in as an impact player, took his time in the beginning and then thrashed the DC bowlers all-round. He finished the match with a six and completed his first IPL century in 47 balls. This was the fastest century by any KKR batsman. Allen hit 5 fours and 10 sixes in his innings. Cameron Green returned unbeaten after scoring 33 runs in 27 balls.

DC’s journey almost over

After losing the toss on their home ground, DC made a good start after coming to bat first. The opening pair of KL Rahul and Pathum Nissanka took them to 49 runs in just 5 overs. Rahul was out as the first wicket after scoring 23 runs in 14 balls. After his departure, Nitish Rana (8), Sameer Rizvi (3) and Tristan Stubbs (2) also departed cheaply. Nissanka batted aggressively from one end but after scoring a half-century, he became the victim of Anukul Roy.

Half of DC’s team was reduced to 89 runs. From here Ashutosh Sharma took charge and tried to bring DC’s innings on track by scoring 39 runs in 28 balls. But due to slow batting of captain Akshar Patel (11 runs in 22 balls), Ashutosh could not take the team to a big score. Anukul and Karthik Tyagi took 2-2 wickets for KKR. Sunil Narayan, Vaibhav Arora and Cameron Green had 1-1 wicket in their account.

KKR lost the wickets of Rahane (13) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (1) in quick succession in the run chase but Allen played a stormy innings to help them win without any problem. After this defeat, DC is now almost out of the race for the playoffs.