IPL 6: KKR vs KXIP: Flops of the match

The Kolkata Knight Riders secured two easy points against the Kings XI Punjab at the Eden Gardens. It has been a tough start to the season for Gambhir’s men as they look like they might be struggling to get their combinations right. However, they did well enough to win by 6 wickets with ten balls to spare.

Or did they?

Lakshmipathy Balaji

It’s easy to argue that as a fast bowler in the Kolkata Knight Riders team, you’re going to be the one that is going to be targeted the most – especially so at the Eden Gardens. But it doesn’t get Balaji out of any holes this time. His bowling was only marginally better than pedestrian, owing to the wicket he picked up against the run of play in the middle of the Kings XI innings.

Apart from that, he struggled to find any consistency and his evening of sport wasn’t too different from a game of darts – inconsistent and awry.

44 runs off his four overs.

Yusuf Pathan

With every passing game, it’s getting harder to put a tag on Yusuf Pathan’s role in this KKR team. His bowling abilities have only been utilized for as many as seven deliveries this year, not adding too much glamour to his 105 runs in eight innings; and even on the best of days – on the best of outfields – a captain wouldn’t go out of his way to keep Pathan on the field over a younger, obviously fitter player.

It looks like a classic case of a franchise being held hostage by the price they paid for a player, and it is hurting Kolkata bitterly as Pathan – yet to score a fifty for them since being signed – is occupying a rather useless spot on the team. They’ve tried batting him at various positions and the top order is the latest experiment. He lasted only one over in the previous game for his 19, but was cut short one-sixth of that result this time – a duck off the first ball.

Mandeep Singh

This young lad came into the fray late in the previous edition of the tournament and has become an integral part of the franchise ever since.

His batting has caught the eye on more than one occasion; but like any other talented starlet from his generation, Mandeep Singh is a fiery presence on the field as well. It needn’t be said then, that he belongs in the league of gentlemen that guard the Kings XI offside ring during the powerplay.

He wouldn’t be too proud to admit that after this game, however.

Azhar Mahmood’s first over was crucial to Punjab, what with his two consecutive wickets. But it proved to be more substantial for Kolkata as on the first ball of that over, Mandeep Singh dropped an absolute sitter of a catch at extra cover that meant Manvinder Bisla made it past the second over of an innings for only the second time this season. Eventually, he went on to score a fifty and bat till the very end to secure a victory for Kolkata.