Teams should get what they want at home. Skipper Ajinkya Rahane asserted so at the toss when queried about the Eden pitch on Thursday.

Kolkata Knight Riders got the pitch they wanted at the Eden, their home turf. Playing on a dry, two-paced track with minimal grass content, they recorded a massive 80-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad to get their campaign back on track.

On his part, Rahane didn’t do a bad job (38 off 27 balls) with the bat. But his teammates Angkrish Raghuvanshi (50 off 32 balls) and vice-captain Venkatesh Iyer (60 off
29 balls) fared even better, which was paramount to the Knight Riders posting a formidable 200/6.

Thereafter, pacer Vaibhav Arora and ace spinner Varun Chakravarthy starred with three wickets apiece to bundle the Sunrisers out for 120 with 20 balls remaining. Importantly, the defending champions’ net run rate got a boost too.

Quicks’ role

The Knights’ quicks (Vaibhav, Harshit Rana and all-rounder Andre Russell) scalped six Sunrisers wickets on this wicket, where the hosts went in with a third spinner in
the form of all-rounder Moeen Ali (who replaced Spencer Johnson). But the former England cricketer neither batted nor bowled.

Precisely, it was Vaibhav’s spell (3/29) that made the Knights’ job easier. Taking just a bit of pace off the ball, he made Travis Head mistime one in the first over of the
Sunrisers’ reply before inviting Ishan Kishan for a drive and having him caught at extra cover.

In between, Harshit picked up Abhishek Sharma with a slower one. With the Sunrisers languishing at 9/3 in the third over, Vaibhav’s first two overs had ensured close to two-thirds of the game was in the Knights’ pocket.

Playing the Impact Player’s role to perfection, Vaibhav put the icing on the
cake with the old ball by dismissing Heinrich Klaasen, which practically sealed the game for KKR.

Game-changing stand

Captain Rahane and Raghuvanshi’s 81-run third-wicket stand brought the Knights’ innings back on track after they were reduced to 16/2 in
the third over. Yet, after 16 overs, 180 looked distant for the Knights.

Sunrisers’ ambidextrous spinner Kamindu Mendis dismissed a set Raghuvanshi. But Venkatesh and Rinku Singh (32 not out off 17 balls) helped the Knights accumulate 66 in the last four overs of the innings with their game-changing 91-run partnership.

Pat Cummins erred in length, pitching it a bit short in the 19th over as Venkatesh smashed him for three boundaries and a six, taking his team closer to the 200-mark.

Empty seats

The turnout at the Eden was 34,000-plus at 9pm.

The overall attendance wasn’t poor, but there were several empty seats at blocks ‘D’ and ‘D1’ throughout the game.

“KKR are in charge of tickets, and we know that they have issued around 41,000,” said a senior CAB official. “High price can also be a reason for poor turnout. The tickets at blocks ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ are ₹3,500, while the D1 tickets are for ₹2,000.”