Karthik wants KKR bowlers to learn from Hyderabad pacers
kolkata — Lauding his spinners for a spirited bowling performance, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Dinesh Karthik urged his seamers to learn the knuckleball from Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), whose bowlers set up a five-wicket win against his team here on Saturday.
India pace spearhead Bhuvneshwar Kumar scalped three wickets as Australian Billy Stanlake was outstanding too, conceding just 21 runs off his fours overs and picking up two wickets. Siddharth Kaul was their most expensive pacer, conceding 37 runs in four overs but overall the three leaked 84 runs in a combined 12 overs compared to KKR’s 79 in just seven overs.
The Sunrisers restricted KKR to a modest 138/8 in 20 overs. Bhuvneshwar had recently said that he has been working on the knuckleball for a year and “you need to find out new ways to get the batsman out.”
“Their (SRH) bowlers have a good knuckle ball going. They use it to good effect. That’s something we can look at and learn from,” Karthik told reporters at the end of the raininterrupted tie which finished well past midnight. The hosts threepronged spin attack comprising mystery spinner Sunil Narine, chinaman Kuldeep Yadav and leggie Piyush Chawla gave away 60 runs from a combined 12 overs with Narine scalping two wickets and the other two grabbing one wicket apeice.
SRH were made to labour in their chase of 139 largely due to the spinners who were difficult to get away.
“I think the spinners bowled beautifully. After the CSK game, the way they have come back, all three bowled well for us. So, I am very happy with way the spinners bowled,” Karthik said when asked about the positives he would take away from a game they barely had a foot in.
There were some eyebrow-raising decisions from the hosts as well. Sending top-order teenage batsman Shubman Gill to bat at No.7 was a shocker. —