Kolkata Knight Riders limit Delhi Capitals to 153 in crushing IPL win

KOLKATA, India (AP) — Kolkata Knight Riders dismantled batting maestros the Delhi Capitals at home in a commanding seven-wicket win in the Indian Premier League on Monday.

Delhi scored 220-plus in two of its last three games but crashed to 153-9, a total saved from embarrassment by No. 9 batter Kuldeep Yadav lashing out for an unbeaten 35 off 26 balls.

Kolkata raced to 157-3 in 16.3 overs and cemented second place on the table. Phil Salt capitalized on a second-over dropped catch to smash 68, his fourth half-century of the season.

Delhi stayed sixth.

Delhi made a rollicking start when Prithvi Shaw smashed three successive boundaries off fit-again Mitchell Starc’s first three legitimate balls in the first over that went for 19 runs.

Jake Fraser-McGurk then lofted Starc for a six and a sliced boundary over point in the left-armer’s next over. But Fraser-McGurk holed out to deep square leg as Starc found his groove.

The bowlers were brilliant.

Fellow fast bowler Vaibhav Arora (2-29), recalled after two games, found a thin edge off Shaw’s bat as he attempted a glance to fine leg, and also knocked the top of Shai Hope’s (6) stumps as Delhi slipped to 3-37.

Spinner Varun Chakravarthy (3-16) and Narine (1-24) entangled Delhi in the middle overs as it slumped to 111-8 before the last five overs.

Delhi captain Rishabh Pant got a life on 18 when Harshit Rana dropped him at short third man but miscued a fuller delivery by Varun and was caught at extra cover on 27. Tristan Stubbs on 4 edged Varun to Phil Salt behind the wickets.

Rana compensated with 2-28. Only Andre Russell was expensive, his one late over costing 10 runs that helped Yadav and Delhi cross 150.

Kolkata's chase was aided by Delhi.

Fast bowler Lizaad Williams' first over went for 23 and he spilled a skier by Salt on 15 at mid-on.

Salt pounded five sixes and seven boundaries in a whirlwind 26-ball fifty as he and Sunil Narine plundered the power play for 79 without loss. Narine was out next ball for 15.

Salt was next to go for a 33-ball 68, attempting to cut left-arm spinner Axar Patel and beaten by pace. By then it was 96-2 in the ninth over.

Captain Shreyas Iyer, 33 not out, and Venkatesh Iyer, 26 not out, saw out the win.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

Kolkata Knight Riders' Vaibhav Arora celebrates the wicket of Delhi Capitals' Shai Hope during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata, India, Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

Delhi Capitals' Abishek Porel is bowled out during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata, India, Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

Kolkata Knight Riders' Varun Chakaravarthy, right, and team mates celebrate the wicket of Delhi Capitals' captain Rishabh Pant during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata, India, Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

Kolkata Knight Riders' Phil Salt successfully catches the ball to dismiss Delhi Capitals' Kumar Kushagra during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata, India, Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

Delhi Capitals' captain Rishabh Pant's plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata, India, Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

Kolkata Knight Riders' Sunil Narine celebrates the wicket of Delhi Capitals' Axar Patel with teammates during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata, India, Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

Delhi Capitals' Kuldeep Yadav plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata, India, Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

Kolkata Knight Riders' Phil Salt, left, celebrates scoring fifty runs during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata, India, Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

Delhi Capitals's Lizaad Williams drops a possible catching chance to dismiss Kolkata Knight Riders' Phil Salt during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata, India, Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

Kolkata Knight Riders' Phil Salt plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata, India, Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — About 100 Filipino activists on wooden boats have decided not to sail closer to a fiercely disputed shoal in the South China Sea on Thursday to avoid a confrontation with dozens of Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships guarding the area.

Accompanied by journalists on four boats, the activists will distribute food packs and fuel to Filipino fishermen about 58 nautical miles (107 kilometers) southeast of Scarborough Shoal and then sail back home, Emman Hizon and other organizers said.

Chinese and Philippine coast guard and accompanying ships have had a series of increasingly hostile territorial faceoffs at Scarborough, which is surrounded by the Chinese coast guard, and at Philippine-occupied Second Thomas Shoal since last year. The Chinese ships have used powerful water cannons and employed blocking and other dangerous maneuvers that led to minor collisions, injured several Filipino navy personnel and strained diplomatic ties.

The United States has repeatedly warned that it's obligated to defend the Philippines, its longtime treaty ally, if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under an armed attack in the region, including in the busy South China Sea. That has sparked fears a conflict could involve Washington if the territorial disputes escalate out of control.

The activists and fishing community leaders, who belong to a nongovernment coalition called Atin Ito, Tagalog for This is Ours, provided aid to Filipino fishermen and floated symbolic territorial buoys on Wednesday on their way to Scarborough's outlying waters to assert Philippine sovereign rights over the atoll. But two Chinese coast guard ships started shadowing them Wednesday night, according to Hizon and the Philippine coast guard.

A group of 10 activists managed to evade the Chinese blockade by at least 46 ships in the outlying waters on Wednesday and distributed food and fuel to Filipinos fishing closer to the atoll. That was cited by the activists in declaring that their mission was a success.

“We managed to breach their illegal blockade, reaching the vicinity of Bajo de Masinloc to support our fishers with essential supplies,” said Rafaela David, an activist leader who led the voyage to the disputed waters. “Mission accomplished.”

The Philippine coast guard deployed three patrol ships and a light plane on Wednesday to keep watch on the activists, who set off from western Zambales province. Dozens of journalists joined the three-day voyage.

In December, the group mounted an expedition to another disputed shoal but cut the trip short after being tailed by a Chinese ship.

China effectively seized Scarborough Shoal, a triangle-shaped atoll with a vast fishing lagoon ringed by mostly submerged coral outcrops, by surrounding it with its coast guard ships after a tense 2012 standoff with Philippine government ships.

Angered by China’s action, the Philippine government brought the territorial disputes to international arbitration in 2013 and largely won, with a tribunal in The Hague ruling three years later that China’s expansive claims based on historical grounds in the busy seaway were invalid under the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The ruling declared Scarborough Shoal a traditional fishing area for Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese fishermen, but China refused to join the arbitration, rejected the ruling and continues to defy it.

Two weeks ago, Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships used water cannons on Philippine coast guard and fisheries ships patrolling Scarborough Shoal, damaging both ships.

The Philippines condemned the Chinese coast guard’s action at the shoal, which lies in Manila's internationally recognized exclusive economic zone. The Chinese coast guard said it took a “necessary measure” after the Philippine ships “violated China’s sovereignty.”

Aside from the Philippines and China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have also been involved in the long-seething territorial disputes.

Indonesia has also had skirmishes with Chinese vessels in resource-rich waters stretching from its Natuna islands to the margins of the South China Sea, which Beijing has claimed virtually in its entirety.

The Indonesian navy has fired warning shots in the past and seized Chinese fishing boats it accused of encroaching into Indonesian waters.

In this photo provided by Atin-Ito/Akbayan Party, activists and crew members distribute fuel to fishermen as groups from a nongovernment coalition called Atin Ito, Tagalog for This is Ours, sailed at the South China Sea on Wednesday May 15, 2024. About 100 Filipino activists on wooden boats have decided not to sail closer to a fiercely disputed shoal in the South China Sea on Thursday to avoid a confrontation with dozens of Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships guarding the area. (Atin-Ito/Akbayan Party via AP)

In this photo provided by Atin-Ito/Akbayan Party, activists and crew members fish on a boat as groups from a nongovernment coalition called Atin Ito, Tagalog for This is Ours, sailed at the South China Sea on Thursday May 16, 2024. About 100 Filipino activists on wooden boats have decided not to sail closer to a fiercely disputed shoal in the South China Sea on Thursday to avoid a confrontation with dozens of Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships guarding the area. (Atin-Ito/Akbayan Party via AP)

In this photo provided by Atin-Ito/Akbayan Party, fishermen raise a Philippine flag on their boat as activists and volunteers from a nongovernment coalition called Atin Ito, Tagalog for This is Ours, sailed at the South China Sea on Thursday May 16, 2024. About 100 Filipino activists on wooden boats have decided not to sail closer to a fiercely disputed shoal in the South China Sea on Thursday to avoid a confrontation with dozens of Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships guarding the area. (Atin-Ito/Akbayan Party via AP)

In this photo provided by Atin-Ito/Akbayan Party, a fisherman raises a Philippine flag on his boat as activists and volunteers from a nongovernment coalition called Atin Ito, Tagalog for This is Ours, sailed at the South China Sea on Thursday May 16, 2024. About 100 Filipino activists on wooden boats have decided not to sail closer to a fiercely disputed shoal in the South China Sea on Thursday to avoid a confrontation with dozens of Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships guarding the area. (Atin-Ito/Akbayan Party via AP)

In this photo provided by Atin-Ito/Akbayan Party, a Chinese Coast Guard ship, background, passes the boats of activists and volunteers from a nongovernment coalition called Atin Ito, Tagalog for This is Ours, at the South China Sea on Thursday May 16, 2024. About 100 Filipino activists on wooden boats have decided not to sail closer to a fiercely disputed shoal in the South China Sea on Thursday to avoid a confrontation with dozens of Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships guarding the area. (Atin-Ito/Akbayan Party via AP)