1 week Ago
Kolkata: If Kolkata Knight Riders know where the limelight is, it’s only because they seem to have rehearsed how not to be in it. Electing to chase after picking three spinners on a pitch which Ajinkya Rahane felt was dry was puzzling. To let Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharshan practically set the tempo of the innings with a 114-run opening partnership was another blunder.
Catastrophic, however, was their inability to not hit a boundary for 34 balls. In a 199-run chase, KKR practically plodded for nearly six overs to go nowhere, practically leaving Andre Russell and Rinku Singh to do the heavy lifting from the moment they walked in. No surprises were in store, though, as they cracked under pressure and Titans coasted to a 39-run win here on Monday to consolidate their pole position.
Rahane got to a fifty but it wasn’t quick enough to keep KKR in the chase or compensate for Venkatesh Iyer’s disastrous strike rate. Rahmanullah Gurbaz, coming in place of Quinton de Kock, lasted four balls. And while Sunil Narine did hit a six, it’s getting increasingly difficult for KKR to justify opening with him considering he knows no other way to score but open up his stance and chase the ball.
All Titans had to do was stick to their plans, Mohammed Siraj leading the charge with a superb economy of seven in three overs. Squeezing the life out of the chase, however, were five overs of disciplined lengths from Rashid Khan and Sai Kishore in the middle phase, conceding just 24 runs between them. Prasidh Krishna returned to give away six runs in his third over, pushing the ask to 85 runs from 30 balls Enter Khan, teasing Russell with a googly that turned sharply before bamboozling him with another delivery that didn’t turn much.
Two dots and Russell had to compensate. He hit a four but KKR needed a cluster of sixes, prompting Russell to skip out of the crease again but this time he stumped himself. KKR more or less gave up after that.
No intent, no partnership worth speaking, KKR were never in the game. Unlike Titans though, who batted with a plan. This season has witnessed three big opening partnerships between Gill and Sudharsan before Monday—120 at Lucknow, 78 against Mumbai Indians and 61 against Punjab Kings, the last two at home.
Every time, the start has been surprisingly simple—nudge the ball through the gaps, capitalise on the loose ones and take a calculated approach towards scoring. Moeen Ali kept it tight in his first two overs but Titans scored off the pacers, Vaibhav Arora going for 12 runs in his second over before Harshit Rana conceded 12 in his opening over. KKR had picked three spinners, possibly expecting the Eden pitch to provide more assistance this time.
It did to some extent with Ali. But Varun Chakravarthy was greeted with a boundary first ball of his over, Gill hanging back and cutting him past the diving backward point fielder. Next over, Chakravarthy was a little quicker and Gill used that pace to jab him through square leg for a four before Sudharsan carved him through extra cover for another boundary.
Sunil Narine’s entry tied up one end, but Titans still kept a stranglehold over the game with Gill and Sudharsan threading the gaps and keeping the score ticking. Till Narine finally erred with his length, prompting Sudharsan to slap a short ball through square leg for a four. Gill, too, started freeing his hands, this time with a slog sweep that he didn’t quite connect but still imparted enough power behind it to clear square leg.
By the 10th over, KKR were happy to concede the singles and twos and spread the field, allowing the Titans openers reach their third hundred-plus opening stand since 2023. Had it not been for Russell, Gill and Sudharsan looked set for the long haul. But the Jamaican bowled seam-up to Sudharsan at good length, getting some bounce that stole a faint edge off Sudharsan’s bat.
That brought Jos Buttler and it could have been two wickets down in the space of three overs had Arora not spilled a catch after backpedaling to mid-off trying to gauge a miscued hoick. Boasting a middle-overs strike rate of 170, Buttler quickly settled down, hitting Rana over his head for a boundary before carting Arora for two fours in the last over to help Titans set KKR a target that they never showed the heart to chase..
