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KKR: Another Lucky Year?

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For the second consecutive time this IPL season, KKR have managed to defend a score quite comfortably (v SRH and v MI). They say defending a total is the most difficult aspect of T20 cricket which is why most captains have opted to bowl first in previous editions of the IPL. Yesterday KKR captain Shreyas Iyer opted to bat first and that I think set the tone for rest of the match.

All-round cricketers Andre Russell and Pat Cummins celebrating a wicket in IPL 2022 as Tim Southee walks past them

KKR looked very strong after the completion of the IPL Auction 2022. They turned that into performances winning three of their first four matches before suffering a five-match losing streak, before winning v RR. Cricket, or rather sport in general, is all about momentum and Kolkata had clearly lost it midway through the tournament. Their top order was failing, Shreyas Iyer and Nitish Rana were inconsistent and most of their bowlers leaked runs. While people like Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Umesh Yadav had been excellent, other international cricketers like Pat Cummins and Aaron Finch produced ordinary outings. There was a lot of chopping and changing, until they landed back to almost the same eleven that took on CSK in the IPL 2022 opener. 

Suddely the batting started to click and the bowlers were more efficient this time around. KKR went on to win three of their next four matches and currently sit on the sixth place in the IPL Points Table. Can KKR still qualify? They still have a shot at the Playoffs spot if they manage to win their last match, preferably by a big margin. With their head coach taking up another job offer in English cricket and Pat Cummins returning home due to injury, KKR were expected to be ruffled but instead they put on a dominating show v SRH. Top order runs, check. Finishing strongly, check. Seamers, check. Spinners, check. All seems to be finally working well for the two-time IPL champions. Luck may take them through, like last time (under Dinesh Karthik). But do they have enough of it for another IPL title?

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  1. Anonymous17 May 2022 at 04:40

    A very good piece. Enjoyed reading it.

    ReplyDelete

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