Struggling Kolkata face buoyant Delhi
kolkata — Not in fine fettle after facing two successive defeats, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will be forced to go down memory lane when they welcome their most successful captain Gautam Gambhir, who is now in charge of Delhi Daredevils (DD), in an Indian Premier League (IPL) game between the two teams here at the Eden Gardens on Monday.
Gambhir helped KKR win titles in 2012 and 2014 before jumping ship to his hometown franchise Daredevils this year.
The captaincy mantle was handed over to Dinesh Karthik, who has so far looked out of sorts in the opening two games, where KKR finished second best to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), respectively.
While their five-wicket defeat to Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s CSK in a nail-biting game was more down to misfortune, SRH rolled over the purple brigade with bat and ball barring the 12 overs from KKR’s spinners which made the modest chase of 139 look difficult. As Karthik rightly pointed out at the post-match press conference on Saturday, KKR’s strength lies in their three-pronged spin attack led by mystery spinner Sunil Narine and also has celebrated chinaman Kuldeep Yadav and veteran leggie Piyush Chawla.
Narine was exceptional against SRH on Saturday, conceding just 17 runs in four overs and also taking the timely wickets of Wriddhiman Saha, who looked good for his 15-ball 24 and in-form Shikhar Dhawan (7). Kuldeep and Chawla also kept it tight as their pacer bowlers kept leaking runs. KKR’s worry has been their team composition as well, a feature laid bare on Saturday. —