KOLKATA: What can be considered a safe total? This question will continue to plague Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad ahead of Thursday’s match at the Eden Gardens.
They would have been delighted to score over 200 points in their first game of the season, but despite this, they ended up losing. It’s hard to digest and even harder to find a way out.
Both the teams are trying to come up with a plan B after losing some key players before the start of this IPL. Interestingly, their bowling has been hit the hardest, making it difficult for KKR coach Abhishek Nayar and his SRH counterpart Daniel Vettori to find the right team combination. All six bowlers used by both sides in the first match were brought to the clean sheet by the opposition batsmen.
KKR have always relied on their spinners, with Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine playing an even more crucial role in the absence of key pacers Harshit Rana and Matheesha Pathirana.
The absence of bowler Cameron Green has certainly deprived the team of options, but KKR’s spin duo, who have scored a combined 78 runs in seven games against Mumbai Indians, should be their bigger concern. Chakravarthy’s poor performance in the T20 World Cup Super Eights continued and Narine also failed to put the brakes on and he looked low on confidence.
Ajinkya Rahane’s captaincy was poor as he did not bowl Narine, KKR’s most economical bowler of the night, to Rohit Sharma, against whom he has a good record. On the other hand, Royal Challengers Bangalore scored 203 runs in 15 overs, which shows the poor performance of SRH’s bowlers.
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KKR’s mid-order was a matter of concern last season and the same issues are plaguing them again. KKR has a decent record of 78/1 in the Powerplay match against MI. But in the middle rounds, they lost momentum and scored only 19 points in three rounds (12-14). Linku Singh and Ramandeep Singh failed to fill the void left by Andre Russell in the lower order.
SRH lost their regular captain Pat Cummins and like last season, they continued to drop points in the Powerplay, conceding 76 against RCB. Some changes are expected as both the camps will look to rectify things and KKR will look to hit a stellar home run in the next three games.
numbers game
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3 – David Warner’s match-record 126 against KKR in IPL at Hyderabad on 30 April 2017; Harry Brook’s 100* at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on 14 April 2023; Heinrich Klaasen’s 100* on 25 May 2025 Hit 105* in 39 balls in Delhi.
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6.80 – Sunil Narine’s economy rate, taking 193 wickets at 25.65 per over in 190 games, is the best among bowlers with 150 or more wickets in the IPL.
(Statistics: Rajesh Kumar)