Lockie Ferguson - the death-overs missile in KKR's arsenal

How does one use limited resources most efficiently? That must be a big conundrum for captains in T20 cricket. You take the field with your five or six bowling choices, but how and when they're utilised can make all the difference.

Take Royal Challengers Bangalore, for example. In Umesh Yadav, they have a potent Powerplay bowler with the ability to bowl wicket-taking skidders. But the same Umesh can be nightmare for the fielding side's captain at the back end of a game.

Dinesh Karthik's Kolkata Knight Riders face a similar dilemma. Knight Riders finished third last year after a terrific season. But if you dig deeper, you'd be surprised how poorly one-half of their bowling outfit really was.

In all IPL history, never has a pace-bowling unit had an economy rate as poor as Knight Riders' in 2018, given at least two bowling innings. At 10.10 runs per over across the season, Knight Riders' pacers undid the good work their spin trio of Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav and Piyush Chawla (economy rate of 8.04) did. As for their death bowling, it was the 10th worst among all teams in IPL's 11-year history, given a full season's bowling.

Those numbers will trip a team up at some point or the other because you cannot always rely on the likes of Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, Narine and Karthik to bail you out. That's perhaps why Knight Riders picked up Lockie Ferguson and Harry Gurney at the 2019 auction.

Using a two-pacer strategy - with Russell as the third seam bowler - Knight Riders have started this IPL with Prasidh Krishna and Ferguson as their designated fast bowlers. But what Ferguson brings, especially at the death, is what makes him most attractive.

When Ferguson first made his foray into the IPL in 2017 with Rising Pune Supergiant, he showed promise. His dot-ball percentage of 66.67% and an overall economy rate of 7.15 that season was one of the primary reasons why Pune made the final that season.

Overall, across Ferguson's career spanning stints with Auckland, Derbyshire, New Zealand and the two IPL teams he's been part of, his death-bowling economy rate (overs 16-20) is remarkable. At 6.87, it's one of the best in the world among bowlers who have delivered at least 15 overs in the last five overs. He doesn't bowl as many dot balls, but neither does he get struck for many boundaries. Wickets at that stage count for less. He has conceded only eight fours and three sixes in the death overs in his career. At a ball-per-boundary ratio of 8.73 in the last five overs, Ferguson brings in a sense of reliability for his captain. It's something Karthik missed in 2018.

Against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opening match of the season, Knight Riders conceded just 37 runs in their last four overs following David Warner's dismissal for 85. At 144 for 1 after 15.5 overs, Sunrisers seemed destined for a score in the vicinity of 200. But all they could muster was 181. Ferguson conceded just 15 off his final 12 deliveries, despite Sunrisers losing only three wickets all innings.

"I think in T20s, you need to keep your plan as simple as possible," Ferguson said before Knight Riders' game against Kings XI Punjab on Wednesday. "You know what you're good at personally and if your captain DK backs your plans, then you're on the same page.

"Sometimes it's probably not going to go as well and sometimes it might go better and you might get wickets in the end. That's just part of T20 cricket. But in T20 cricket, it's all about nailing your plans, which is different for every bowler, but it was pretty pleasing to see our death-overs performance [against Sunrisers]."

Ferguson is a humble man too. Sporting a twirled moustache in support of Movember (we're in March already, Lockie!), Ferguson was asked how he feels in a pace-attack that was once helmed by Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee, Trent Boult, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc.

"By no means am I the leader of our attack," Ferguson responded. "We're all cogs in the team, and I think, just like we saw in the first game, we all do our part and someone else (Andre Russell) gets the wickets.

"In our other games, our spinners will definitely get the wickets. I'm just glad to be part of this family and I'm excited to have another go."

Ferguson also looked inwards to credit his own development, from the time he was with Pune in 2017 to where he is now, as, perhaps, New Zealand's fastest and best death-overs option ahead of the World Cup.

"It's exciting. I mean, in the last year, I guess my cricket's developed a lot," Ferguson said. "I hadn't planned to be here [at the IPL] maybe a year ago but then things went well and I'm just excited to be a part of a team. I think our whole bowling attack is exceptional. To have the spin attack we have, and with PK (Prasidh Krishna) at the top swinging the ball and being very good at the death, we have a good side."

With 13 games to go and more than two weeks of away games - due to polls in West Bengal during that period - after the match against Kings XI on Wednesday, the pace-bowling unit will be looking to finish their second home game on a strong note.