In Sharjah, if you score below 150 in the first innings, the chances of defending it become very low, mainly because of the smaller dimensions of the ground, and the same happened with Kolkata Knight Rider who were thoroughly beaten by Kings XI Punjab by eight wickets.
Mandeep Singh and Chris Gayle were heroes with the bat for the Kings while Mohammad Shami and the two leggies in Ravi Bishnoi and Murugan Ashwin were handy with the ball. For Kolkata, Shubaman Gill’s fifty was the consolatory positive from an otherwise disappointing outing.
On that note, here are the Hits and Flops of the game.
When KL Rahul got out early in the game and with no Mayank Agarwal and the wicket gripping the oddball, Chris Gayle’s arrival at the pitch wasn’t really giving many hopes to the KXIP fans, especially after the way he was beaten a few times of both Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy. But the 40-year-old dug in. He stood his ground and once the rhythm was found, he just couldn’t be stopped. The Gayle storm wrapped Sharjah in its presence and by striking at more than 175; he not only brought the run rate down but also helped his partner at the crease, Mandeep Singh, to calm his nerves.
Gayle made 51 off 29 balls before holding out to Prasidh Krishna at short third man off Lockie Ferguson in a very soft dismissal.
Getting a chance to represent his team because of regular opener Mayank Agarwal’s injury, Mandeep Singh made the best of the opportunities reaching his sixth IPL fifty and carrying his bat to see the team home. Also, the fact that Mandeep was playing this innings just a few days after his father’s death and the gesture towards heaven after reaching his fifty, was heart touching for any fan.
The Punjab born after remaining not out at 66 off 56 deliveries also said that his father always wanted him to be not out in his innings and today when he led his team to victory being not out, he dedicated the inning s to his father.
Since the last few matches, the Punjab bowlers have got lethal in their approach and the most dangerous among them is Mohammed Shami. The Uttar Pradesh born was brilliant in this game as well, picking up three precious wickets and bowling in the areas that were hard to hit for any batsman. Perfecting two of the most lethal weapons in the fast bowler’s armory- the bouncer and the Yorker, Shami now looks untameable and at times beastly in his approach to the batsmen.
Getting two crucial wickets of Rahul Tripathi and Dinesh Karthik in two balls, Shami literally broke the back of the KKR team. His match ending figures of 3/35 might not show the prowess with which he bossed the game, but KKR batsmen would. With 20 wickets from 12 games, Shami is now just three wickets away from Kagiso Rabada in the race to the Purple Cap.
Ever since his three back to back positive knocks, Rahul Tripathi seems to have got lost somewhere. In the last few innings, he hasn’t looked the Tripathi people have come to know of. 7, 13, 1, 23, 7, 16, and 4 have been his scores in his last seven innings. In this innings too, he got out at a point when he was not settled at all and chased a delivery outside off.
These failures have kept piling on him and it would be better if KKR made him realize that instead of Chopping and changing his position.
Karthik, the former captain of the team has played only one match-winning innings in their entire tournament so far. He has looked rugged and battered ever since the captaincy has been taken off him. He has not really been able to get runs and the idea of trying him at every batting position by7 the team management is also not working. In this game, he not only got out but also wasted a team review, which if utilized by Pat Cummins (wrongly adjudged LBW) could have fetched different results.
If somebody that really deserves the flop tag then it is the management of the KKR which is deciding its batting order. How can somebody justify opening with Nitish Rana and when Rana, the left-hander gets out then sending in Tripathi, a right-hander is sent in, instead of Morgan or Narine, the other two left-handers, if the left-right combination was the sole purpose of sending Rana to open.
Also playing Kamlesh Nagarkoti and not giving him the bowl in the entire game is also beyond apprehensions now. If they want to qualify, The Knight Riders really need to get their game in a single frame instead of playing 10 different games at the same time.
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