When Kolkata Knight Riders were struggling at 31-5 at the end of the fifth over, nobody even in their wildest of dreams would have thought that they would be trying to get 20 of the last over with a certain Pat Cummins batting at 65 off 33 balls.
It wasn’t only Cummins that was an unlikely hero with the bat for KKR, but Andre Russell also finally paid dividends with the willow in his hand, scoring a 22 ball 54 and getting out in the unlikeliest of fashion, bowled from behind the legs. Dinesh Karthik was the third KKR batsman to eke out any sort of resistance. However, he too got out leaving Cummins alone in the middle. The Aussie did hit Sam Curran for 30 runs in one over to get the equation in his favour with 45 needed off the final four.
In the end, though, it was too much to ask for Cummins as he ran out of partners and the last man, Prasidh Krishna couldn’t support him by completing a two of the first ball of the last over, getting run out in the event and wasting away five precious deliveries.
Earlier in the evening, MS Dhoni, the skipper of the Super Kings had surprisingly decided to bat first after winning a toss at Wankhede. Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad made full use of the decision, getting back in form, with two scintillating half-centuries for both the openers. This firebrand batting helped Super Kings reach a huge total of 220 runs.
The game had a lot of heroes and villains too. Let’s have a look at them in the segment called Hits and Flops
The CSK opener was on a roll with the bat, especially in the second half of the Yellow Brigade’s innings. At the time of the other opener, Gaikwad’s wicket in the 13th over, du Plessis was hardy in the limelight, just going about things lacklustre. He hadn’t even completed his fifty back then.
But once the fifty was completed in 36 balls, the 36-year-old utilised the next 24 balls to hit 43 runs and remain unbeaten at 95 with the help of nine fours and four giant sixes. It was with the help of the South African’s innings only that CSK, after being 165-2 in the 17th over, were able to get to 220 at the end of the 20th.
The importance of this innings could be gauged from the fact that it was also du Plessis’ first-ever fifty-plus score in his last 10 innings across formats.
It would be hard to believe, if someone reads this piece a few years down the line that Pat Cummins would feature as a hit in a T20 game, not for his bowling, but rather for his batting. The New South Wales born was able to keep his team the Knight Riders in the game even after all their batting superstars had walked off to the dressing room when 75 runs needed off just 30 balls.
Cummins hit Englishman Curran, who had got dangerous Russell bowled around his legs, for 30 runs in the 16th over and brought down the required rate from 15 runs per over to just over 11, with 45 needed from 24. He then took 13 runs off a Shardul Thakur over to bring the equation down to 27 from two overs. But with wickets falling regularly at the other end, it wasn’t easy for the paceman to keep going at the same rate.
Eventually, it came down to 20 off the last ball and well rest of it has already been told.
Chahar was back to his very best once again for MSD’s calling. Swinging the ball left-right and centre and forcing the batsmen to commit mistakes. Most of his wicket-taking deliveries were actually lucky escapes for the bowler and unlucky for the batters. Only Eoin Morgan’s wicket came off a delivery that had genuine merit for taking a wicket.
But what should not be forgotten is the fact that Chahar was able to get those four wickets because of the better 16 balls that did not fetch him a wicket, but did force the batsmen to take different recourse and thereby making him commit the mistake.
This was Chahar’s second four-wicket haul this season and he has now reached the joint second place in the list of most wickets, just one behind leader Harshal Patel of the RCB.
The KKR skipper has failed continuously this season, having not been able to play even one good innings in the four matches so far. Today was no different either. Trying to get to up the ante, and reasonably so, he was going for the boundaries. But the manner in which he played an outside off delivery from Chahar to get run out at, was silly, to say the least. It was not at all becoming of a World Cup-winning captain.
With just 45 runs so far in the four innings, it is high time for Morgan, 33, to get his act together and lead by example for others to follow. Ireland born was not at his usual best in terms of bowling changes as well as this was the second game in a row that KKR conceded more than 200 runs.
The lanky fast bowler was guilty, of not only wayward bowling, but also of committing cardinal sins like bowling not just one but two no-balls in a T20 game. The Karnataka bowler went on to concede 49 runs in his four overs without getting even a single wicket.
Krishna was not able to keep the ball in the right areas and was also missing his wide yorkers. His length was so much aloof that du Plessis was able to scoop him. Further, Krishna was guilty of ball watching in the final over of the game when KKR desperately needed a double in the first ball of the final over to get Cummins back on strike. Replays were not kind to Krishna when they showed how the player hadn't moved an inch off his crease despite Cummins' straight drive going well past him. This resulted in a runout in the bowlers' end and robbed KKR off what potentially could have been a match deciding five deliveries.
Andre Russell, as a bowler has been pitiable, to say the least apart from his five-wicket haul against Mumbai Indians. But as a batsman, the Jamaican has showcased, in this game, as well as in the last one that he is still a force to reckon with.
When most people lost hope of any comeback from KKR, just the presence of Russell was more than good enough to keep that one flame, even a flicker of it burning, in the hope that the game might change. It did change eventually as well when the 32-year-old started swimming against the tide. He was supported well by Karthik and who knows, if that unfortunate manner of getting out would have been averted somehow, Wankheded might have witnessed another Andre Russell special (People wouldn’t have forgotten his 2016 T20 World Cup semis knock against India).
While CSK one more game at Wankhede (vs RCB) before moving to Delhi, Kolkata find themselves up against Rajasthan in the next encounter.