Well just some 24 hours back I had written about Kolkata Knight Riders' chance in this year's Indian Premier League as they along with the Kings XI Punjab are the only team to make their presence felt in the tournament. But, in the very first encounter with the Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders lost to the defending champions by 2 runs. Well, the match need not be pardoned saying the small margin of victory for the CSKs will not last for long in people's minds. This is neither test nor one day cricket for the margin to be considered to be that small.
The scorecard reveals the team work by the Chennai Super Kings where all batsmen who took to the crease did his little bit to the score eventually ending at 153. This was too less compared to the standards of a T20 game. A total below 180 in a T20 game is as good as some 250 total in a one day game which in today's cricket stands nowhere. A run rate of 9.0 an over seems to be ideal in a T20 game no matter what. The total set up by the Chennai Super Kings against Kolkata Knight Riders stood nowhere for a team with Gambhir to chase.
One has to reason out for Gambhir coming in at number 6 when his usual position being number 1 or 2 in the batting line up. I just went sick seeing Jacques Kallis batting the same way as he plays in test cricket or a one day international. A slow and steady innings in a T20 game is the last thing that would be preferred. No matter that he got to the second half century of the match after some Anirudh scored a match winning 64. Of course, the blame is not completely on Kallis alone but on the entire Kolkata team.
Only 4 batsmen took to the crease from the Chennai Super Kings side with batsmen like Badrinath and Ashwin not making to make it to the crease. And, Morne Morkel and Scott Styris couldn't stay there for long playing just 11 balls in between them. This has been the pity of a T20 game with most of the time taken to concentrate and settle down. This time also, most of the time and overs were taken by Anirudh, Raina and Dhoni making it a perfectly Indian combo. But, Kolkata Knight Riders' efforts needs to be praised for coming so close to the game when otherwise they were way behind.
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