KKR had another woeful outing in the IPL where they lost steam despite a crunch middle-over affair against a soaring Delhi Capitals and were tossed into the wild as their woeful season continued.
Batting first, they would conjure 146 runs while losing 9 wickets. It was Nitish Rana who would fight till the end with a 34-ball-57 while Shreyas Iyer got the much-needed start but failed to convert it into a big knock. Kuldeep Yadav was in a sensational form that would see the Knights being haunted by their former chinaman spinner.
Chasing 146, Delhi would initially be crumbling as Umesh Yadav claimed three important wickets but a Rovman Powell masterclass, in the end, would deal a deafening blow to KKR’s aspirations for the third time in the last three years.
Even though KKR performed well in the first few games, ever since they have been in a constant downward spiral and the world seems to be going up in smoke for the nights. In this story, let us try and decode the three possible reasons why the team has not delivered the goods as one would have expected at the start of the season.
#1 An imbalance in the batting order
KKR’s batting order hasn’t been great. The team has tottered and it has found itself at the receiving end of some severe flak. They are not able to pack a powerful punch when it comes to balancing, especially given the rift between Shreyas and McCullum. Ideally, the batting order is decided by the current situation of the game and KKR’s game reading has been downright bad. When you do not have a perfect combination who would deliver your cause, the campaign is already doomed.
#2 Shreyas’ inability to convert small knocks to big ones is costing the KKR badly
Somehow the Knights’ captain is getting the much-needed starts but has been falling way too frequently after getting the starts and that is exactly where the problem lies. A rising belief is soon fading into oblivion and the timing of his wicket is getting very crucial to the likes of the Kolkata’s batting. For example, in the game against the Royals, Shreyas could have easily hung in the middle and played out Chahal but he somehow wanted to do something outrageous and lost his scalp.
#3 Retained players’ performance
Barring Sunil Narine, the remaining retained players have been all over the place with Venkatesh Iyer being shifted up and down, Andre Russell playing as per his moods and Varun Chakravarthy still unearthing the mystery that how did he get retained. Barring the Titans and the Giants, the remaining teams who have done well is because of their retained players pulling the triggers. Russell has somehow come up with a decent display but they aren’t reverberating enough to crack open a rift in space and time. Sunil Narine have been exceptional with the ball but the batting responsibilities that one would expect from him has been exhausted completely.
