IPL 2021, DC vs KKR: 3 players who flopped

Riding on the back of a blitz from Prithvi Shaw, the Delhi Capitals (DC) trounced the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 7 wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad to move up to second on the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) points table.

After being put in to bat by Rishabh Pant, Eoin Morgan's men never really got going. Familiar top-order woes were overcome to a certain extent by Andre Russell as Shubman Gill made a welcome return to form, but KKR's total of 154 was never going to be enough. As dew set in and made batting exponentially easier, the DC openers methodically picked apart the KKR bowling in the powerplay.

Here are 3 players who flopped in the IPL 2021 game between DC and KKR on April 29.

#3 Shivam Mavi (KKR)

Shivam Mavi was a late inclusion in the KKR playing XI, but immediately made an impact with two economical spells in his first two games. Getting the ball to swing in the powerplay and being unerringly accurate with his lines and lengths, the young speedster did enough to be given the first over of the DC run-chase.

Even Prithvi Shaw couldn't have anticipated what was about to take place. Mavi conceded six boundaries in the over, unable to control the prodigious swing on offer as Shaw peppered the off-side boundary. He bowled a wide too, and the 25-run over is the third-most expensive opening over in IPL history.

The dreadful start set the tone for the run-chase, and although Mavi took a smart catch on the boundary to dismiss Rishabh Pant, he will want to forget this contest in a hurry.

#2 Eoin Morgan (KKR)

Eoin Morgan is firmly in the hotseat after KKR's sobering defeat to DC. The KKR captain's lack of production with the bat has damaged his team's ability to control the middle overs, where they again lost the plot today.

Morgan won the Man of the Match award for taking KKR home in a fairly comfortable run-chase in the previous game, but he didn't stick around for very long against DC. A lofted delivery from Lalit Yadav was meekly chipped to Steve Smith at wide long-off, as he walked back for an embarrassing duck.

The performances of KKR's captain over the last two IPLs, whether Dinesh Karthik or Morgan, have left a lot to be desired.

#1 Sunil Narine (KKR)

A couple of days after his best IPL performance in quite a while, Sunil Narine went through yet another disappointing outing. The West Indian came in to bat at No. 5 after his captain's dismissal, and perished in the very same over for a golden duck.

Narine's batting isn't what it once was, but that's largely because of his weaknesses against pace. For him to be beaten all ends up by a gripping off-break painted a rather sorry picture of the state of the KKR batting lineup. But that's not what Narine is primarily in the team for, and he had the chance to make up for his duck with the ball.

Unfortunately for Narine, things didn't get much better. He conceded 36 runs in his 4 overs without taking a wicket as both Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan countered him easily. KKR have some intense thinking to go with regards to their spin-bowling all-rounder spot.