KKR openers Nitish Rana (left) and Shubman Gill run between the wickets against Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai on April 24, 2021.
Kolkata Knight Riders' IPL 2021 season is taking turn for the worse as the side has now slumped to the bottom of the table with a fourth loss in five matches with the latest coming against Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai on Friday.
The Wankhede Stadium off late has seen some low-scoring matches and Friday night's game was no exception with KKR posing a meager 134-run target on the board, which was chased down by Royals by the 19th over with little discomfort in a six-wicket win.
Skipper Sanju Samson, who endured a slump in form after scoring a century against Punjab Kings in his first match of the season, scored an uncharacteristic 41-ball 42 in the win while likes of Chris Morris (4/23), Jaydev Unadkat (1/25), Chetan Sakariya (1/31) and Mustafizur Rahman (1/22) kept the KKR batsmen in check in the first innings.
While fingers were raised at the pitch getting slower as one of the reasons behind KKR's batting misery, India TV expert and former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar felt that it was lack of form of KKR openers and failure to score quickly in the powerplays cost KKR the game.
"Of course the pitch has got a bit slower after so many matches played here but runs could have been still scored in the powerplays," Manjrekar said in the India TV show 'Cricket Dhamaka'. "Royals scored close to 50 runs in the first six overs but KKR could score only 22. I feel both Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill are trying to find their form and that makes scoring difficult on a pitch like this."
While Morris, who was the most expensive buy at the auction at Rs 16.25 crore, was credited for much of the RR bowling success on the night, Manjrekar credited early tight spells from the likes of Unadkat, Sakariya, and Mustafizur for taking the fizz away from KKR batting.
"Morris picked key wickets of Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell down the order but the real damage was done before he bowled his first ball of the match. The opening spells from the likes of Unadkat and Sakariya pushed KKR to the backfoot and their entire innings was about to try and make up for it," said Manjrekar.
