All-star bowling, big Warner-Shaw stand lead Capitals demolition of Kings
Capitals race to 81 inside powerplay, and past the target in 10.3 overs, after restricting Kings to 115, the lowest total this season
Mayank Agarwal, who missed the last game with injury, came back but that didn't make any difference to Kings' luck at the toss. Asked to bat first, Agarwal started off with intent. Staying beside the line of the ball he hit three boundaries in three overs before picking one off into the leg side last ball of the third as Shardul Thakur tried to cramp him for room. Kings were 27 for no loss in three overs with traditionally more expensive powerplay overs to come.
Rishabh Pant played match-ups by bowling Lalit to Shikhar Dhawan and got a wicket immediately, although not conceivably in a planned manner. This was a long hop down the leg side, Dhawan tried to help it along to fine leg, but just didn't get there in time, and Pant took a special catch off the face of the bat. In the next over, Agarwal, trying to stay beside the line, ended up playing on to Mustafizur Rahman.
Jitesh Sharma and Shahrukh Khan stemmed the fall of wickets - Jitesh even managed a strike rate of about 140 - but their partnership ended at 31. Jitesh tried to sweep one of the most difficult bowlers to sweep - Axar - and paid the price with an lbw. In the one match that Kings didn't play Smith, they found themselves five down with the best part of eight overs to go.
The target was never going to test the Capitals batters, but they were not going to stroll to it. Teams are aware how important net run-rate can be. Not that Prithvi Shaw needs any extra motivation to go from ball one, but David Warner, too, could play much more freely than he does as the experienced batter in the side.
Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo