IPL 9: Knight Riders aim to get their campaign back on track against Supergiants

Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir during the practice session of Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens on Friday. Image Source: Xtra Time

Kolkata: Hosts Kolkata Knight Riders will look to get its campaign back on track in Indian Premier League as they take on Rising Pune Supergiants at the Eden Gardens on Saturday. The Supergiants, already out of the contention for a play-off berth will look to derail the Knight Riders. The two time former IPL champions will need at least a couple of wins to guarantee their place in the play offs.

Gautam Gambhir led Knight Riders will be rejuvenated after a five day break and will be desperate to get their campaign back on track. The entire Knight Riders team went for a river cruise on Ganges on Thursday night. The cricketers were with their families and friends and went on partying till midnight.

The Knight Riders, who held pole position midway into the season, had a slide to find them slipped to fourth place and are in danger of slipping out of top four.

One of the big factors that’s eluding KKR is Sunil Narine’s X-factor something that has contributed to their triumphs in 2012 and 2014 with the off-spinner claiming 74 wickets in four seasons.

Back after a remedial action, the ‘mystery’ spinner has only managed six wickets from six outings at an economy of 7.34 as the batsmen are no more afraid to go for big hits against him.

Lack of turn from an otherwise low and slow Eden Gardens track also meant that their spin strength has gradually fizzled out. The Knight spinners have so far looked ineffective at their own backyard.

Keeping this in mind, the home team has prepared a rank-turner for Saturday’s match as Narine who was seen bowling hard at the nets may return to replace Brad Hogg.

But the ploy may also backfire against a team who has a potent spin attack in the Ashwin duo of Ravichandran and Murugan to go with Aussie leg-spinner Adam Zampa on a high after his six-wicket burst against Hyderabad.

For a team that normally goes with six bowlers, KKR would hope to make use of the conditions and restrict their opposition but at the same time skipper Gautam Gambhir may think of promoting Andre Russell up the order.

The scorecard may show that KKR had lost the plot against Gujarat after being 24/4 inside the Power-play to go down by five wickets while defending 158 but on that day their most explosive batsman Andre Russell could not get to bat.

While most of the teams opt for at least two foreigners as explosive batsmen, KKR seem contain with Russell coming down the order, while the likes of Chris Lynn and Colin Munro boasting 140-plus T20 strike rate warming the dug-out.

Needing two wins from four matches to seal a play-off berth, Gambhir may rethink his strategy of a bowling-oriented four foreigners’ line-up.

On the other hand, Dhoni, who is at the helm of Pune franchise, has drawn a lot of flak for his bizarre decisions of late and it’s high time that he takes more batting responsibilities and silences his critics.

Considered one of the best finishers of world cricket, Dhoni had Thisara Perera with him when they needed 22 from two overs but the skipper decided not to attack the impressive Bangladeshi left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman who conceded just eight runs in the 18th over.

Instead of an aggressive approach, Dhoni and Perera preferred to go for safe shots of ones and twos and risked the match into the last over as Sunrsisers Hyderabad won by four runs, defending a paltry 137.

While most of his counterparts are leading from the front, Dhoni’s contribution with the bat has been minimalist with 212 runs from 10 innings at an average of 30.28.

The Indian skipper is also being blamed for under-utilising his one-time trusted lieutenant R Ashwin who has not completed his four overs quota in 10 of his last T20s, including five matches for Pune.

The otherwise enigmatic Dhoni has raised serious questions with not promoting himself in tough situations — like while chasing 138 he instead promoted Ashwin to No. 4 against Hyderabad.

Thus it remains to be seen how the most successful Indian captain who has pulled out of Tests lifts himself up from such a difficult situation.