When broadcaster Simon Dole on Sunday asked Shreyas Iyer to assess his team’s bowling performance after Kolkata Knight Riders’ loss to Delhi Capitals in an IPL 2022 match, he blamed Prithvi Shaw and David Warner for their failure to stop. The word ‘clueless’ was used. Added 93 runs in 8.3 overs.
IPL Full Coverage , Schedule , Result , orange cape , purple cap
Explaining the reason behind this, Iyer later explained, “I said clueless because he got a really good start after the first over. We didn’t expect the wicket to play so well. The surface was very rough but if you look, Prithvi Shaw is one batsman who can change the powerplay. As a captain, I don’t know what kind of ground can be made when he plays good shots on good deliveries. That’s why I said so.”
Shaw blew up Kolkata’s bowling attack by hitting Umesh Yadav for a boundary through extra cover on the first ball of the innings. The right-handed batsman took a liking to Yadav, hitting him for three more boundaries despite being hit on the helmet. Shaw then made a bridge over deep midwicket off Pat Cummins to complete Delhi’s half-century in just four overs.
Read also: Talking Points from KKR vs DC and RR vs LSG
Iyer introduced spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine in the power-play. But they were not able to stop Warner and Shaw as the boundaries kept flowing.
“It was definitely based on the start he got. Prithvi is someone who doesn’t make as much impact on the spinners as I’ve played with him before. Since he started really well, I’m going to limit that pace. Wanted what he had made in the beginning. I thought Varun and Sunil are both really experienced bowlers. So, I really thought we could restrict him at that time and give us a really good catch.”
From the options, Iyer brought in Andre Russell and Venkatesh Iyer. But Shaw hit Venkatesh for a four and a six on either side of the wicket to complete his half-century in 27 balls. Although Chakraborty ended Shaw’s stop for 51 when he cast him through the gate with a googly, Delhi’s job of setting up the ground for a 44-run victory was already done.
Kolkata pulled things back with four wickets as Delhi were 176/5 in 18 overs, with Shardul Thakur and Axar Patel scoring 39 runs in the final two overs to take one final attack to take Delhi to 215/5. With Umesh scoring 23 runs and Cummins scoring 16 runs in the 19th and 20th overs respectively, it reiterated that Kolkata’s death bowling has been his Achilles heel in IPL 2022.
He said, ‘It is not a matter of concern (death bowling); This is definitely something that we need to work on as a team. Even when we practice, we need to see that we execute the yorkers properly and bowl as per the pre-match plans,” Iyer said.
“We have an amazing group of bowling teams; We also have amazing coaches. So it’s just that we support our strength and see that we don’t think negatively at that time. Yes, we’ve been really fine with death in previous games too. But this is something we can work on and come back really strong.”
Chasing a mammoth target of 216 runs, Kolkata needed a start like Delhi and the contribution of all the batsmen. But that didn’t happen as Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer fell in the power-play. Iyer himself scored 54 off 33 balls and backed Nitish Rana’s 30 off 20 balls. But once the pair got out in successive overs, it was all over for Kolkata.
On his part, Iyer refused to indulge in relegation but admitted that not converting the batsmen into big scores is an area of progress. “I am not at all worried about the start we are getting. But when you are chasing 215 you need to start well. You can’t even think twice what the bowlers are going to bowl. Because you have to have an aggressive mindset right from the first ball and one mistake can get you out as a batsman. So I will not blame anyone in this particular pursuit.”
“But yes, we have had this history in the last few matches that we didn’t get really good starts. This is also something we need to work on. It’s just an early stage of the tournament, so once we start practicing more and doing really well on the field, I think things will be taken care of really well.”
Get all the latest updates cricket news, cricket pictures, cricket videos, IPL 2022 Live Updates And cricket score Here