At times intent and astute captaincy aren’t enough to fetch the desired results. Kolkata Knight Riders had the chase of 239 in their grasp but let it slip away with a batting-order blunder.
The home franchise was left to rue their decision to send Ramandeep Singh and Angkrish Raghuvanshi ahead of Andre Russell and Rinku Singh following their four-run loss to Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday.
In the end, Rinku Singh wasn’t able to pull off a miracle — 19 off three balls. KKR’s prayer for a wide or a no-ball in those final stages also didn’t come off. The lefthander smashed two boundaries before going down on his knees and slog sweeping the final one for a six over mid-wicket.
Rinku had earlier turned down two singles in the 19th over and didn’t run off a yorker too after nailing it to the right of bowler Avesh Khan.
But it was the team management’s decision to toy with a settled batting order
which remained the talking point. Ramandeep and Raghuvanshi wasted two and four balls, respectively, before being dismissed.
The early arrival of Russell or Rinku could have turned the tables on the Super Giants but KKR’s tendency to experiment cost them dear. They wasted an amazing start
provided by Sunil Narine and Ajinkya Rahane before Venkatesh Iyer kept them in the hunt.
“See, Ramandeep is a quality player He’s done it for the team in the past as well,” Rahane tried to justify the decision at the news conference.
“Again, if he clicks, no one can ask the question... The thought behind sending Ramandeep (ahead) is, you know, go and just play freely. If Russell stays in the later stages, opposition will actually be wary of him.”
Rahane could be absolved of being a party to it since he had been waging a battle in the middle. However, it did take the sheen out of his excellent leadership skills on the day.
Avesh and Ravi Bishnoi had been fretting at the sight of Rinku, who seemed to have rediscovered his magical touch. Even Russell had begun with a monstrous six only to be dismissed in his attempt to perform an encore.
The young Raghuvanshi was hardly the ideal choice to be sent in at the start of the 15th over. His ability to hold the innings together in the first 10 overs benefits the side but with 73 needed off 36 balls, Russell or Rinku would have been the perfect choice.
Even last season during their successful campaign, Rinku and Russell’s batting order remained a matter of much debate. The Knight Riders don’t seem to have learnt their lessons and the inclination to drop them lower down persists.
The team management will have a lot of answering to do if they fail to make the playoffs following Tuesday’s goof-up, Rahane’s mundane approval notwithstanding.
