"Who was saying SunRisers Hyderabad is the most explosive team of this year's tournament?" - Aakash Chopra on KKR's batting in IPL 2024 win vs LSG
Aakash Chopra reckons the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are the most explosive batting unit in IPL 2024.
KKR set the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) a 236-run target in Lucknow on Sunday, May 5. The visitors then bundled KL Rahul and company out for 137 to register a comprehensive 98-run win and climb atop the points table.
Reviewing the game in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra noted that KKR thrashed LSG and claimed that Shreyas Iyer and company are the most destructive team in IPL 2024.
"They went to Lucknow's gully and treated them like you do in gully cricket. The definition of a one-sided encounter was explained and Lucknow were handed the biggest defeat of their two-and-a-half-year career. Who was saying SunRisers Hyderabad is the most explosive team of this year's tournament? It's KKR," he said (11:45).
"They have gone beyond 200 six times and when you score 235 runs, it means the match is totally in your grasp because it wouldn't matter even if a little dew came as you had (Sunil) Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Mitchell Starc, Vaibhav Arora and Andre Russell. They are a perfect team," the former India opener added.
Phit Salt and Sunil Narine have almost invariably given KKR flying starts this season. The other batters have made the most of the platform provided by the openers and taken the two-time champions to mammoth totals.
"This year Narine is feeling bad when he gets out which wasn't the case earlier" - Aakash Chopra lauds Sunil Narine's consistent performances for KKR
![Sunil Narine smashed 81 runs off just 39 balls. [P/C: iplt20.com]](https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2024/05/e2e51-17149733796238-1920.jpg?w=500)
Reflecting on the Kolkata Knight Riders batting in Sunday's game, Aakash Chopra pointed out that Sunil Narine continued his consistent run.
"They (LSG) won the toss and decided to bowl. They expected dew to come later but Narine came before that. He is playing differently. This year Narine is feeling bad when he gets out which wasn't the case earlier. Earlier he used to keep hitting and wasn't bothered if he got out," he said (12:00).
The cricketer-turned-commentator reckons the all-rounder should already be awarded the most valuable player for this season.
"He now has expectations from himself that he can consistently score runs - that maybe he can have the Orange Cap. He is close in both the Orange and Purple Cap lists. Give him the Player of the Tournament already. Make him the MVP because he is batting like that," Chopra elaborated.
Chopra noted that the other KKR batters also played crucial cameos to take their side to a massive total.
"Phil Salt was hitting more at the start and once he got out, Angkrish Raghuvanshi played for some time. He was sent at No. 3 and after that came Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ramandeep Singh, and then in the end Venkatesh Iyer came for one or two balls. You need small-small knocks once you have got an explosive start," he observed.
Apart from Narine, Phil Salt and Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who scored 32 apiece, crossed the 30-run mark for KKR. Ramandeep Singh's six-ball unbeaten 25 gave the final push to the visitors' total.