Chandrakant Pandit, Kolkata Knight Riders’ head coach, has stood behind team captain Nitish Rana over the latter’s comments on the lack of home advantage at Eden Gardens, which had irked the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB).
Following KKR’s five-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings at the Chepauk last Sunday, Rana had said: “Home-away wala advantage sab teamo ke paas hai sivayee KKR ko chhod ke (Every team enjoys home advantage except KKR).” Rana’s words obviously hadn’t gone down well with the CAB brass but Pandit says the skipper was “misunderstood”.
Talking to reporters on the eve of the Knights’ final league-phase clash against Lucknow Super Giants at the Eden, Pandit said: “He (Rana) has been misunderstood. What was meant was when we play at home, we would like to win all those games, but we haven’t been able to do so. We couldn’t make use of the home advantage. There’s no question of pitches or anything else.”
“Pitches have changed dramatically over the period. If you go to any other venue, for instance at the Wankhede, you’ll see a different kind of wicket.
“So nobody can give a guarantee when it comes to pitches,” the head coach stated.
In order to qualify for the playoffs, the Knights have to beat the Super Giants by a huge margin on Saturday to better their net run rate. Speaking about the situation his team faces, Pandit said: “We’ll definitely give a thought on the permutation and combination, but our focus is on winning the match. We shouldn’t just keep looking at the points table.”
Analysing KKR’s season so far, Pandit added: “The playoffs line-up isn’t decided yet, which shows the competitiveness of the IPL. But yeah, we could’ve done better with the potential we have.”
Chance to seal spot
Calcutta: Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings will not like to leave anything to fate and win their last league match, against Delhi Capitals at the Kotla on Saturday, in order to seal a spot in the playoffs.
Currently on 15 points, a win would guarantee CSK a place among the last four. Not that a loss would knock them out, but then they would have to hope that one among Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore (both on 14 points each) lose their last game and also Lucknow Super Giants (15 points) falter against Kolkata Knight Riders in Saturday’s second game.
That’s too much of complication. With David Warner’s Capitals being already knocked out of the race, CSK will fancy their chances of a win to take a straightforward path to the playoffs.
OUR BUREAU
Today’s match
■ Delhi Capitals vs Chennai Super Kings, 3.30pm, Delhi, live on Star Sports & Jio Cinema
