KOLKATA: The alarm bells must have started ringing inside the Kolkata Knight Riders camp. Approaching the halfway stage of this IPL, the Knights, languishing at the bottom half of the table, will be desperate to arrest the slide after suffering a hat-trick of defeats.
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They will be happy to get back to ‘home’ front but it will not be surprising if they feel otherwise because of someone in the rival camp who answers to the name of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. With the possibility of the former India skipper playing his last match in Kolkata, yellow and not purple might be the colour of the Eden Gardens when KKR play Chennai Super Kings on Sunday.
Dhoni might not be at his sublime best having managed just 59 runs in six matches so far, but he still wears that ‘Captain Cool’ tag which has kept CSK firmly in the race for a top-four spot. The side doesn’t have too many big names, but Dhoni has handled his young bowling unit well to keep their championship fires burning.
However, expect a spin in the tale as both KKR and CSK bank heavily on their tweakers. While KKR’s spinning trio of Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Suyash Sharma have claimed 21 wickets so far, CSK’s Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali and Maheesh Theekshana have picked up 13 scalps. They are again likely to hog the limelight on Sunday too with the middle overs playing a big role in the outcome of the game.
KKR have plenty of holes to fill starting with their approach to Powerplay. The team is still in search of a settled opening pair with coach Chandrakanth Pandit trying out four combinations in six matches so far. A poor start is also creating pressure on the middle order demanding too much from skipper Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh and team’s most consistent batter Venkatesh Iyer. There is a possibility of seeing another new pair opening the innings on Sunday after the failure of Jason Roy and Litton Das against Delhi Capitals in the last match.
KKR pacers are also guilty of leaking runs in the first six overs going at an economy rate of 11.3 while managing to pick just nine wickets in six games.
Bowling coach Bharat Arun accepted that too. “We need to step up our Powerplay batting and Powerplay bowling,” he said. “See, we are getting close to 200 runs every innings despite not doing well in the first six overs and we are taking matches deep even after giving away runs initially. So we need to look hard at those areas,” he added.
The poor form of KKR’s two key players – Andre Russell and Sunil Narine – is adding to their woes. The West Indian duo has looked a pale shadow of what they have been over the years.
CSK, on the other hand, are served well by their opening duo of Devon Conwayand Ruturaj Gaikwad which prompted Dhoni to say, “I’m not getting a lot of chances to bat, but I’m not complaining.”
No wonder they have the best Powerplay average of this IPL with former Knight Ajinkya Rahane providing solidity in the middle order.
However, with the possibility of rain looming and threatening it to make a truncated match, both teams may be forced to trade their pre-match planning with some drastic, desperate steps in accordance with the need of the moment.
Watch IPL 2023: KKR desperate to arrest slide against heavyweights CSK
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