KKR bowlers turn RCB clash into a stroll
The IPL kicked off on Sunday with a blockbuster game between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings but Monday night’s match between two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders and Virat Kohli’s high-flying Royal Challengers Bangalore also was nothing short of being a classico.
The reason being this match was between two heavyweight captains, Virat Kohli of India and Eoin Morgan of England, who are touted as favourites to win the T20 World Cup which starts immediately after the IPL in the UAE.
Both skippers would have liked to get off to a winning start, especially Morgan, whose team KKR had just two wins out of seven games and need to win at least five more games to have an optimistic chance of making it to the play-offs. Whereas Kohli’s team RCB had five wins and two losses out of their seven games.
Morgan said before the game began that his team had nothing to lose and now would be a dangerous side for any team facing them. Moreover, this was a timely break for KKR after their struggles in India in the first phase of the tournament where they were struggling to get their team combination right before the IPL got suspended.
Fearless cricket
The main issue Knights faced was that their openers could not get them to a quickfire start where both Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill failed to complement each other. Their average powerplay score was below 40 — which was way too low in the shortest form of cricket. Morgan wanted his KKR to bring the same brand of fearless cricket as he does for team England if they had to reach the play-offs.
KKR’s strength had been their bowling, especially Varun Chakravarthy — the mystery spinner who was picked by his national side for the T20 World Cup and how well he responded by picking three important wickets, especially that of the big show Glen Maxwell that broke the back of RCB batting after which they could never recover and bowled them out for a paltry 92. Dangerman Andre Russell, who is known for his batting skills, showed he can do the damage with the ball too by picking up three wickets. KKR won the game easily and got two crucial points — but it will have to be the skipper Morgan who will have to be playing the anchor role in the rest of the games so that finishers like Karthik and Russell can take the team home. Moreover, Morgan himself is a dangerous player with a strike rate of 138.
Morgan leading from the front with the bat will make KKR a more dangerous side and as he has done for the last five years for England, he can repeat the same for the Kolkata franchise to make it to the play-offs.
With this emphatic win, KKR also boosted their run-rate which would come in handy if they are tied on points.