Sunil Narine’s belligerent start for KKR and a slew of amazing catches were the key moments from Sunday night in Lucknow. (BCCI)
Versatility and depth of KKR batting
The dimensions of the square boundaries in Lucknow today are 68 meters and 61 meters. Whenever there are skewed dimensions in square boundaries it is a common tactic used by the teams to bowl one side of the wicket and make the batter hit to the longer side. However, it is not possible to restrict this Kolkata side with that kind of strategy because the batting line-up is constructed in such a way that the team can have a left-hand right-hand combination through the 20 overs (4 left-handers and 4-right-handers in the top 8) which can counter not only the irregularity in dimensions but also all the spin match-ups oppositions throw at them.
In addition to the versatility, the reason KKR batting can afford to go all guns blazing right from the word go is because of the depth of batting they possess. Including Mitchell Starc they have nine batters who can play blazing cameos at any point of the innings which is not a luxury some of the other teams have in the tournament. Though Sunrisers Hyderabad have matched the aggression of KKR, batting falls apart when Travis Head and Henrich Klassen don’t fire.
High-Fives in the @KKRiders camp 🙌
With that they move to the 🔝 of the Points Table with 16 points 💜
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/CgxfC5H2pD#TATAIPL | #LSGvKKR pic.twitter.com/0dUMJLasNQ
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 5, 2024
Yash hushes KKR
A content smile spread over Yash Thakur’s face. He is not the most expressive of fast bowlers. Whether he nabs a wicket or gets whacked for a six, he wears the same wooden expression. But this time, he had bowled a two-run over in the powerplay, amidst a carnage of fours. The previous five overs had bled 68 runs; at least two fours were hit every over. Then he came and delivered an over from a dream. The key was his pace. Unlike most other bowlers, his change of pace is not pronounced. He doesn’t drop the pace from 142 kph to 122 kph. Rather, it’s subtler, he moves from 142 kph to 138 kph with clever alteration of length. The first four balls were all in the fuller-length category, but some landed on the good-length patch, some bordered on the full-toss frequency. Sunil Narine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi found that lining him up for the big strokes was difficult. So much so that Angkrish even defended the last ball of the power-play, which most batsmen would have looked to ferry it to the stands. Only one doubt remained: Why was KL Rahul hiding him all the while, when all his bowlers were being cut to ribbons.
A touch of sophistry
Sunil Narine can smoke the ball into the stratosphere. He can hack and heave the moving meat spindle to all corners. But he showed his sophisticated side too, en route picking another half-century. A deft late cut that wowed KL Rahul, the LSG captain and wicket-keeper, one of the finest purveyors of the stroke. Like all good late cuts, he played at the last possible moment, snatching it from the jaws of Rahul’s gloves. The ball from Ravi Bishnoi spun across him, landing on leg and middle, at a brisk pace. Narine stood still, then just crouched a bit as the ball reached him, and with minimalistic back-lift, tapped the ball past short third-man. The shot winked in his half-century, as he continued his rapid ascent on the run-getters’ charts. Soon, though, he would revive his violent ways, thundering Marcus Stoinis for three sixes in the next over.
The LSG spin conundrum
Both Krunal Pandya and Ravi Bishnoi are competent T20 bowlers when the surface has minimum help for the tweakers. However, whenever Lucknow played in conditions when the ball was gripping a bit, the duo tended to bowl it flatter and quicker (over 90 kph) similar to the way they would bowl on flat decks to restrict the batters from hitting boundaries instead of attacking them by slowing down the pace and tossing the ball up to utilize the turn available. KL Rahul would deploy Marcus Stoinis as an alternative method to pick wickets in middle overs on these sorts of pitches. Stoinis would take the pace off and dig a few into the surface which gave mixed results. The side would also use 41-year-old orthodox leggie Amit Mishra whose strength is tossing the ball up and beating the batters in flight against Rajasthan as an impact substitute at Ekana. But on the night when the surface was holding up the veteran looked out of his depth.
Jaunty Rhodes
One of the features of the broadcast during LSG matches has been the camera-people training their sights on Jonty Rhodes every time something significant happens on the field. The South African is perhaps the player every cricket fan associates with great fielding… and so as the coach at LSG, he seems to be constantly under focus. When Ravi Bishnoi took that stunner of a caught and bowled earlier this season against GT, he was spotted wearing a big smile. On Sunday against KKR, it was the other side, when Devdutt Padikkal and Mohsin dropped Sunil Narine back-to-back off Bishnoi and the camera panned to Rhodes once again, this time looking a bit somber. But that would soon change as he, along with LSG players, celebrated a superb high catch by Krishnappa Gowtham to dismiss the dangerous DreRuss. It was a chance for Rhodes to be jaunty again.
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