Kolkata Knight Riders walked into the Arun Jaitley Stadium on May 8 carrying the weight of six straight losses from earlier this season. By the time Finn Allen finished his innings, none of that baggage remained. The New Zealand opener smashed a maiden IPL century in just 47 balls, and KKR cruised to an 8-wicket win over Delhi Capitals in match 51 of IPL 2026, making it four wins on the trot.
How the First Innings Unfolded
Delhi Capitals had a reasonable start in their batting effort. Pathum Nissanka set the tone with a 50 off 29 balls, racing through the powerplay with confidence. But the moment he fell, stumped off a deceptive delivery from Anukul Roy, the innings lost its backbone.
KKR’s spin trio stepped up beautifully. Sunil Narine (1/17 in 4 overs) and Varun Chakravarthy (0/28 in 4 overs) squeezed the middle overs so hard that DC scored only 11 runs in five overs between the 12th and 16th. That is the lowest such figure in IPL 2026, and among the lowest in recent memory across the whole tournament history.
Axar Patel, DC’s captain, continued his scratchy run with the bat, finishing with 44 runs from more than 50 deliveries for the season. Ashutosh Sharma gave the total some respectability with 39 off 28 balls, but DC still limped to 142 for 8, a total that felt 20-25 runs short on this surface.
The Chase and the Allen Show
KKR’s reply started on a nervous note. Two wickets fell inside the first three overs, Ajinkya Rahane run out off a deflection and Angkrish Raghuvanshi falling shortly after. For a brief moment, the pitch had the power to make even a 143-run target feel tricky.
Then came Finn Allen.
He started patiently, reading the pitch and not forcing anything early. Cameron Green was the perfect partner, batting with clear eyes and accumulating sensibly. Together they put on an unbroken 116-run stand off just 64 balls, and with Green posting 33 not out off 27, it was Allen who took complete control.
From 20 off 17 balls, Allen shifted into another gear entirely. He smashed Kuldeep Yadav for back-to-back sixes, then took Vipraj Nigam for three consecutive maximums in the next over. Ten sixes in total, the third-highest six-hitting total by a KKR batter in IPL history after Brendon McCullum’s legendary 2008 knock and Andre Russell’s 2018 onslaught.
Allen finished with 100 not out off 47 balls, striking at 213. His strike rate against spin specifically was 235, which put into numbers what everyone watching already knew: Delhi’s spinners had no answer for him.
KKR crossed the line in 14.2 overs with 34 balls to spare.
What This Means for the Points Table
With this win, KKR now have 9 points from 11 matches. They are seventh in the IPL 2026 points table, but they have momentum that most teams in the top four would envy. Four games still remain in the league stage, and two more wins likely seal a playoff berth.
For Delhi Capitals, the situation is grim. They now sit eighth with 7 points, and with the middle of the table tightly packed, even a couple of wins might not be enough if results elsewhere don’t go their way.
KKR’s bowling combination is looking very settled, their batting order can now rely on Allen and Green as a genuine partnership, and the spin twins Narine and Chakravarthy remain as consistent as ever. This is not the team that lost six in a row. This is a team that has found itself at exactly the right time of the tournament.
Written by 8JJ.com | May 9, 2026
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