Kolkata Knight Rider’s dream of making to the semi-finals got shattered with the winning of Chennai Super Kings last Sunday (run-rate calculation didn’t favour KKR). It was a lovely match to watch out for – how Mahendra Singh Dhoni, captain of Chennai Super Kings hit fours and sixes to pull his team to the last four.
When all of us were thinking that it was Punjab who will win, Dhoni showed his real talents. Like a brave soldier in the battlefield, he started to bang Irfan Pathan in the last over, thus sealing his team’s victory. Chennai needed 25 runs of the last 2 overs and they easily made up that.
However coming back to Kolkata Knight Riders or KKR, it was more than a nightmare. What else can I say! Although I am a fan of my home team and love to see KKR win matches and ‘dada’ hitting sixes, still I cannot dream of the team making it to the semi-finals, when they played so BADLY.
When all the teams are trying hard not to leave an inch to the opposition, the KKR bowlers were allowing the batmen to score boundaries and over-boundaries (with their superb bowling skills). They need to do a lot of hard work in terms of fielding and bowling. Just when we need to restrict the runs, the bowler were giving scope to the rival batsman to hit sixes and fours! It really a shame to see the team losing 50% of the matches ‘just like that’, when there was every chance of winning a match.
Every one who knows the game of cricket is well aware of the fact that ‘accidents’ can happen, but come on, not in this way! Sourav Ganguly, the captain of KKR himself has admitted that there are serious flaws in bowling and fielding. It is common sense that some teams will win and some others will loose, but please you should at least show that stamina and drive to lead your team to win.
The match between KKR and Punjab where KKR made 200 runs, but still lost the game because of Jayawardhane’s lovely batting, or the match between KKR and Delhi, where in spite of taking some early wickets of Delhi, we failed to get victory – all these points out to just one thing: we simply don’t have that inner zeal to shatter the rival team and take away the game. The KKR batsmen are just horrible, getting out early and lacking consistency.
When everything seems to be going in its favour, suddenly one simple miss calculation or bad hitting or trying to hit a ball, when it is going to be ‘wide’, leads KKR to lose a match. Why will this happen always with Kolkata Knight Riders? All of us know, every team starting from IPL season 1 has at least made to the semi-finals, just leaving KKR. They have played so poorly that all our expectations and praises have gone in vain. Never ever have they at least showed that hard work and dedication to win a match easily.
Only once or twice (once in a blue moon) has the Kolkata fans got to see that rare sight – KKR winning a game very comfortably and playing brilliantly (like the match played yesterday).
Yesterday’s match between KKR and Mumbai Indians had the feast for the eyes, with some beautiful knocks from McCollum and Ganguly to look out for. The captain also took 2 great catches and got good applauds from the Eden Gardens crowd.
However, it’s really sad to see our team – KKR bid adieu from this season of IPL 3. While seeing the team win the match yesterday, I was only thinking – had they played a nice game with Chennai or Punjab or Delhi, we could have made it to the semi-finals.
But, yes enough is enough. KKR must wake up from its dreams and finally make the team ready for the coming year’s IPL season 4. They should learn from their mistakes and take the ‘good’ match-winning lessons from other IPL teams.
What has Mr. Dav Whitmore (KKR’s coach) and Mr. Wasim Akram (KKR’s bowling coach) has to say on this!
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