The Eden Gardens pitch, despite a decent covering of grass, had something in it for the spinners, as was the demand from the Kolkata Knight Riders, but that did not help the home team overcome their shortcomings as they slumped to a 39-run defeat, outplayed in all departments by Gujarat Titans.
In reply to the Titans’ 198/3, the Knights could only limp to 159/8.
Suffering back-to-back defeats — also their third in four home appearances — the Knight Riders now need to win at least five of their remaining six games to qualify for the playoffs, which looks to be a very stiff task. The sombre expression of the Chandrakant Pandit-led KKR coaching staff at the team dugout said it all.
In such circumstances, it certainly won’t be too surprising if the franchise does something drastic and follows the Team India route in trimming its coaching staff. The only thing is, Abhishek Nayar, their latest addition in the support staff, is unlikely to be the fall guy in this case.
As for the Titans, who rode performances from their skipper Shubman Gill (90 off 55 balls), his opening partner Sai Sudharsan (52 off 36 balls), Jos Buttler (41 not out off 23 balls) and almost all their bowlers to register another win, they moved a step closer to the playoffs with 12 points.
Lack of intent
The Knights replaced the misfiring Quinton de Kock with Rahmanullah Gurbaz, but that didn’t work as he looked out of sorts before a Mohammed Siraj delivery that came in a little bit. Thereafter, barring Sunil Narine and captain Ajinkya Rahane, there was
an absolute lack of intent from most of the other batters,
especially vice-captain Venkatesh Iyer.
The ₹23.75 crore-worth cricketer had a painstaking stay at the crease, especially against rival spinners Rashid Khan, Washington Sundar and Sai Kishore. That doubled the pressure on Rahane, who got barely any support from the other end.
Rahane, on his part, perhaps erred in deciding to bowl first, especially when he himself said at the toss that the pitch seemed a bit dry. Precisely, the pitch did appear to be aiding spinners a little more during the second innings, with leg-spinner Rashid also regaining form after being ordinary in the previous games.
Too short
The wicket had a fair bit of bounce early on, so why the Knights replaced pacer Anrich Nortje with Moeen Ali was quite baffling. At the same time, their spin aces, Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, bowled too short at times, conceding easy runs.
If that wasn’t all, pacer Vaibhav Arora dropped a sitter at long-off giving a reprieve to Buttler when the latter was on 17. Thanks to Harshit Rana conceding only eight in the 19th over, the Titans’ total couldn’t exceed 200.
Captain’s innings
The talk has mostly been about Gill’s impressive captaincy in this IPL, which has been key to the Titans’ position at the top of the table. On Monday, he served a timely
reminder about his ability with the bat.
Gill’s innings and the efficiency with which he anchored the innings were pivotal to the Titans posting a formidable total. “Shubman knows this ground quite well as he has played here on several occasions earlier. Such an innings was expected of him,” England’s 2019 World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan, also an ex-captain of KKR, said later.
Of course, the Knight Riders don’t have a Jofra Archer or a Mitchell Starc-like bowler to exploit Gill’s technical frailties. However, the Titans’ captain deserves credit for playing the right shots, using timing, wristwork and power to keep the Knights’ bowlers under constant pressure. Sudharsan and Buttler too played their roles with perfection to complement their skipper.
