When KKR whipped up hurricane and got caught in it
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) struck to a method even when it seemed madness to do so. Such rigidity against Mumbai Indians (MI), who were here without six regulars, on Saturday made the wheels come off when they were overspeeding.
Chasing 174, KKR whipped up a hurricane that produced a battery of big hits but yielded nothing.
Blowing up the chance to be second in the standings after the league phase of IPL10, the Knights now know that nothing short of winning all three remaining games will help them add a third star on their purple and gold shirts.
Skipper Gautam Gambhir said it seemed at one point that KKR were trying to win in 10 overs. He was right. Problem was, Gambhir may have been guilty of starting it. After Tim Southee bowled a wicket-maiden first over, Gambhir and Chris Lynn had got to 41/1 after 4.3 overs. Lynn had given indications of another lynching, hitting two sixes and a four off Southee. KKR were ahead of the required rate and yet Gambhir fell for the bait when Mitchell Johnson banged one in.
Even then, Lynn ensured Johnson leaked 14 runs in that over but for the second time since returning from injury, Robin Uthappa didn’t put a prize on his wicket. And when Lynn fell two balls later, KKR slumped from 53/2 to 53/4.
Perhaps weighed down by the number of dot balls in their last match, Yusuf Pathan played a blinder when consolidation, of the kind he and Manish Pandey had produced away to Delhi Daredevils, was needed.
Pathan went after a seven-ball 20 and KKR were 87/5 after nine on a wicket, Mumbai Indians’ opener Saurabh Tiwary said, that had got easier to bat on. After 12 overs, KKR were 21 ahead of MI but had lost three more wickets.
“First of all, we didn’t bat well enough…we were a little off the mark,” said KKR’s opening bowler Trent Boult who returned after nine games. “But Mumbai Indians too bowled pretty well on a wicket that was slightly two-paced. The luxury of bowling second also means you can pressure the opposition, click wickets and make it hard for them to chase a decent total,” said Boult.
Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir today blamed his batsmen for their irresponsible batting after they suffered a nine-run loss against Mumbai Indians in IPL here on Saturday.
Chasing 174 to win, KKR were restricted to 164-8 in their stipulated 20 overs.
“With the kind of wicket this was, this was chaseable. Had one of the batsmen batted till the end, we would’ve got there. Just irresponsible shots, batsmen were trying to throw their bats at everything,” Gambhir said. “I thought to restrict them to 174 was an unbelievable effort. I thought we were trying to chase this down on 10-12 overs.”
MI skipper Rohit Sharma, however, praised his team for their perfect execution of plans and come out with flying colours despite making six changes.
“We spoke of finishing on a high. We wanted to play the brand of cricket we spoke about. Very happy. Today proved we have a great bench strength. It