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IPL 2024, Demotion Of Rinku Singh, Undercooked Middle-Order - 3 Things That Went Wrong For KKR

MS Dhoni shaking hands with Andre Russell and Mitchell Starc after the game [iplt20.com]MS Dhoni shaking hands with Andre Russell and Mitchell Starc after the game [iplt20.com]

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bounced back with a convincing victory at home against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), beating them by seven wickets with 14 balls in hand.

Winning the toss and electing to field first worked well for Ruturaj Gaikwad and Co as they restricted KKR to 137/9 in 20 overs. Ravindra Jadeja and Tushar Deshpande were the wreckers in chief with Mustafizur getting a couple of wickets on his return.

In return, the KKR bowlers failed to make an impact with the ball, as CSK batters found it easy going. With Daryl Mitchell and Shivam Dube stepping up against the spinners while Ruturaj Gaikwad shepherded till the end.


Let us analyse the three major aspects that went wrong for KKR in this encounter.

Middle Order exposed against slow turners

The Kolkata Knight Riders were in a good position after the powerplay as the score read 56/1 with Sunil Narine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi set at the crease. However, it was the introduction of Ravindra Jadeja that turned the tide in favour of the home side, following the field restrictions.

Jadeja removed Narine, Raghuvanshi and Venkatesh Iyer in a space of eight deliveries while Maheesh Theekshana cleaned up Ramandeep Singh. Jadeja stated during the mid inning break that the wicket wasn’t a rank turner but a slow turner and in such conditions, these CSK spinners are lethal. The KKR middle order had no answers and eventually crumbled with the passage of time.

Demotion of Rinku Singh

Rinku Singh had a great outing in IPL 2023 for the KKR. When their top four was not firing, it used to be him who would stabilise the stage and lead them to a good total. However, the KKR think tank went with a different plan today despite the situation being similar.

With Shreyas Iyer at one end, they sent Ramandeep Singh, who is known to play more cameos rather than building an innings. Also, sending two right-handed batters against the attack of right and left-arm finger spin meant less value. Pushing Rinku up the order would have given the southpaw freedom to express themselves with the cushion of Ramandeep and Andre Russell at the back end. Eventually it did not happen and both Rinku and Shreyas succumbed to the pressure built by the CSK spinners and medium pacers.


Toss and dew

The rumours of dew playing a part in Chepauk was circulating around social media from Sunday itself. It came out to be true as well. The toss favoured the home captain Gaikwad who eventually chose to field first, keeping in mind the weather conditions. When asked to Shreyas, he too wished to field first.

Dew is such a factor that makes time difficult for the bowlers and such was the case with KKR. Courtesy of brilliant bowling and change of pace, CSK strategically curbed KKR to a below-par score that eventually, became easy to chase for the Yellow Army with the assistance of dew and spin-bashing players such as Daryl Mitchell and Shivam Dube.