"No need to become selfish"- Mitchell McClenaghan backs KKR's batting approach despite failure against CSK in IPL 2024
Former New Zealand pacer Mitchell McClenaghan believes the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) need to continue backing their ultra-aggressive approach with the bat despite their comprehensive loss against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their IPL 2024 match on Monday, April 8.
Kolkata could only manage 137/9 in their 20 overs as the Chennai bowlers took full advantage of the conditions in Chepauk. One of the fans on X (formerly known as Twitter) questioned KKR's aggressive approach and took a dig at the batters for not batting long.
"KKR is full of big hitters and no one played for their personal milestone today. Still I can't understand why they scored just 137 today. A selfish 70(50) might have taken KKR to 160+ btw," the fan wrote.
However, Mitchell McClenaghan replied to the fan, opining that KKR were spot on with their approach. He added that an odd bad result shouldn't make them 'selfish' and play for their milestones.
"Sometimes you shoot for the stars and land on the moon. No biggie - their formula has worked so far no need to become selfish," McClenaghan wrote.
There has been a lot of debate about the strike rate in the shortest format recently, especially during the ongoing IPL 2024 season. While some believe there needs to be a batter to bat throughout the innings, others feel the shortest format has moved so far ahead that it has no place for anchors.
Shreyas Iyer reflects on KKR's first loss of IPL 2024
KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer was pretty blunt in his assessment of where Kolkata went wrong against CSK. He accepted that the batters didn't read the conditions well and that the Chennai bowlers were bang on the money once the powerplay restrictions ended.
Here's what Shreyas said in the post-match presentation ceremony:
"We fell short in terms of assessing the wicket. They know conditions pretty well, bowled according to their plan. It was tacky, wasn't easy to go big right from first ball. It changed tremendously after power play and the way we were trying to construct our innings, didn't go to plan."
However, Iyer is also glad that an off-day came this early in the season for the Knight Riders. He is optimistic about his team going back to the basics and working on correcting their mistakes.