Where are Kolkata Knight Riders going wrong? They do not seem to be
playing particularly poorly yet today's loss was their third on the trot
after a close come-from-behind win against Auckland. Their batsmen have
scored more runs than the previous game on every occasion in the
tournament without really imposing themselves on the opposition. Their bowlers
has built pressure only for a costly over here and there to take the game
away in the end. There are no glaring issues but the margin for error is
minuscule in this compressed format and small errors get magnified.
Jacques Kallis, Gautam Gambhir (Shreevats Goswami earlier) and Manoj
Tiwary - with career strike-rates of 113.65, 121.18 and 117.67 - are
batsmen who like to take their time to get going, even in Twenty20s. At
the moment, they come one after the other in the batting order. It leaves
Yusuf Pathan and Ryan ten Doeschate with too much to do.
ten Doeschate, who strikes above 130, has clearly been under-used. Today,
he came in at No.7 with the asking rate touching an improbable 15. He did
showcase his ability with a 16-ball 32 but that had no impact apart from
reducing the margin of defeat. How much would a similar innings have
helped Kolkata had it come earlier in the chase? Instead Shakib Al Hasan,
who strikes at 105.96, was sent in at No.3.
While Gambhir has the class and Kallis is the anchor of the line-up,
Tiwary has struggled to accelerate in the middle stages against bowling
attacks of a standard slightly higher than those he faces in the IPL.
There is a clear case for shuffling the batting order. If the Knight
Riders feel that Yusuf's raw power is required at the death, at least ten
Doeschate's calibre demands that he be moved a couple of places higher.
Gambhir admitted that with the benefit of hindsight, he could have done
that.
"You are always wiser after the event," Gambhir said. "The way he was
hitting the ball, I could have sent him up the order. But we need someone
to finish games as well. It's about the team. Wherever the support staff
and the team management think he is going to contribute the maximum, we
are going to use him at that number."
ten Doeschate also has 60 wickets with his medium-pace at an economy rate
just under eight but he hasn't bowled a single delivery in this
tournament. The Knight Riders have reasoned that the pitch in Hyderabad
was more conducive to spin but it was a Yusuf over in both losses in the
main tournament that turned the momentum firmly against them. While Yusuf
is a useful bowler at times, there can be no harm in giving ten Doeschate
a go as well, especially given that the second seamer has leaked runs
throughout.
Gambhir is an extremely proud competitor and he knows that the Knight
Riders sorely need a win with the losses having put them on the brink of
elimination. "When you lose, you haven't done things right. Till the time
you don't win, you are not doing well. When I walk onto the field, it's
about winning. It is not about playing good cricket. You must have heard
that saying, 'you don't need to think about the result, you need to think
about the process'. But for me, when you are playing competitive sport, it
is about winning. People can say that we are not playing that badly, but
we are not crossing the line."
The Knight Riders run into familiar opposition in the Royal Challengers
Bangalore next, but could do with a fresh approach which takes a break
from what is not broken, but has just not worked so far.