There is perhaps no team as frustrating as Kolkata Knight Riders in the entire history of the Indian Premier League.
Failures can be accepted and understood. Royal Challengers Bangalore have just had a horror season. Delhi Daredevils are living up to their reputation of showing promise in fits and bursts. Gujarat Lions have not had any bowlers this season. You deal with it and finally accept those shortcomings.
But there’s that special way in which KKR are frustrating. Ability, potential, impact. They have it all. They have the players to do it. For a while, they tick every box. And then they throw it away.
Same old, same old
This season of the IPL has followed the same old format. A brilliant start where they looked like they would blow everyone out of the competition. And then, the same old problems. Just like last year, they have managed to scrape into the playoffs again. And are on course, once again, to lose in the eliminator and finish an honourable fourth.
Why is it so frustrating for the KKR fans, the thousands who first braved the heat outside Eden Gardens to get tickets and then the rain on Saturday, only to watch their team throw away yet another match against a second-string Mumbai Indians? Because they’re better than this. They’ve always been better than this.
Seven wins out of nine. That’s how good KKR were, in the first quarter of the season. Wins where they didn’t even need to play at 100%. Targets chased down in less than 16 overs. Teams bowled out for 49. When KKR decide to fire, they’re an unstoppable, unbeatable force.
IPL’s chokers
Except at the business end of the season. Right when it’s required most. When the pressure is on to perform. It’s happened in the last two years. And it is happening again. One win in their last five matches. What a fall for a team who looked good for the top spot and who have now just about managed to sneak into their playoffs, by the dint of their net run rate.
It is a regular trope for KKR. The customary “brainfade” at the end of the season. Because how else do you explain them their loss at home against a depleted Mumbai on Sunday?
There was no Jasprit Bumrah or Lasith Malinga. No Parthiv Patel to provide the opening ballast. No Mitchell McClenaghan or Harbhajan Singh. And yet, Kolkata still lost.
Losing the plot
First their death bowling, which has been a problem throughout the season, conspired to let Mumbai away to 173. And then their batting. Gautam Gambhir summed it up, “I thought we were trying to chase this down in 10-12 overs”.
Why though? This is a team which has chased down scores with veritable ease through the season. So what’s happening right at the end? First against Kings XI Punjab on Monday, they blazed away to a brilliant start and then got bogged down, guilty of playing too many dot balls and messing up an easy chase. Then against Mumbai on Saturday, they went to the other extreme. The target of 174 was within reach, the required run rate was under control. And yet, each and every batsmen seemed intent on going hell for leather, despite the relentless fall of wickets. At one stage, KKR needed 25 runs off 18 balls. But the caveat: they had only four wickets left.
The only explanation is that this is a confused unit with just one plan and nothing else. For all of Gautam Gambhir’s talk of aggression, the bowling, in particular at the death, has remained substandard. Amidst all the hype and hoopla about Nathan Coulter-Nile, Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav, it’s easy to forget that Royal Challengers Bangalore’s score of 49 is the only instance of a team scoring less than 155 against KKR this season.
As for the batting, the general motto this season for them seems to have been: let’s hope the top two or three do the majority of the work and if they don’t, then…umm…no, we don’t have a clue. Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa and to an extent, Manish Pandey, who started off the season in such scintillating style, have tapered off. You can tell that there is confusion within the ranks with no clear idea now on how to mount a comeback if they lose early wickets. It’s either shut shop or hit your way out. Neither of which is going to lead to a lot of success.
KKR have one last chance. Show up in the playoffs and put things right. But going by the evidence of their last five matches, don’t hold your breath.
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