2 mistakes and 1 masterstroke by KKR in their IPL 2024 match vs RR
The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) fell to their second defeat in the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) as the Rajasthan Royals (RR) beat them by two wickets at the Eden Gardens on Tuesday, April 16.
The Knight Riders lost an important toss, but a sensational hundred from Sunil Narine propelled them to a defendable 223/6. While Shreyas Iyer and company saw the Royals start brightly, they pulled things back in the middle overs to give themselves the upper hand with around five overs to go in the chase.
However, Jos Buttler, who wasn't at his fluent best, kicked into gear in the last few overs. Rovman Powell contributed a few big blows at the other end as well, with Rajasthan securing the two points off the very last ball of the innings.
Tactically, Kolkata weren't at their absolute best. While they featured in an enthralling game of cricket and got some decisions right, there is definite room for improvement going forward.
Here are two mistakes and one masterstroke made by KKR in their IPL 2024 match against RR.
#3 Mistake - KKR closed out the powerplay with Vaibhav Arora
This is a pattern that has surfaced plenty of times in IPL 2024. Captains don't seem to understand the value of closing out the powerplay with a strike bowler, and in this case, it was Shreyas Iyer who erred.
Shreyas tossed the ball to Vaibhav Arora in the sixth over even though there wasn't any movement on offer by then. The RR batters made the most of the last over of the field restrictions as Buttler and Riyan Parag picked off two fours and two sixes.
Rajasthan were ahead of the chase by the time the powerplay ended, and that was because Shreyas chose to bowl Arora instead of one of his dangerous spinners.
#2 Masterstroke - Shreyas Iyer held back close to 5 overs of spin for Shimron Hetmyer and Rovman Powell
That said, though, Shreyas made the right call by holding back close to five overs of spin for Shimron Hetmyer and Rovman Powell. He was more than happy to bowl primarily pace to the likes of R Ashwin and took Narine out of the attack after just two overs.
Moreover, Varun Chakaravarthy was only introduced after the 10-over mark. The move paid off as Hetmyer was dismissed off the first ball he faced and Powell struggled to get his innings off to a quick start.
#1 Mistake - KKR could've been a bit more proactive with their batting order
KKR did well to promote Andre Russell to No. 5, but there were other changes they could've made to get to a bigger total.
Shreyas came to the crease in the 11th over, by which time Kolkata already had 106 runs on the board and could've teed off. Later in the piece, Ramandeep Singh should've walked out ahead of Venkatesh Iyer, who wasted six balls for his eight runs.
The Knight Riders are slowly becoming more willing to give their big hitters the right entry points, but their approach wasn't perfect against RR. It was one of the reasons why Sanju Samson and company were able to scale down the target.