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regular-article-logo Wednesday, 08 May 2024

IPL 2023: Win fine, but Kolkata Knight Riders must play catch-up

Nitish Rana reminds his players not to get too carried away at Chinnaswamy on Wednesday night

Our Bureau Calcutta Published 28.04.23, 05:27 AM
Kolkata Knight Riders’ Varun Chakravarthy, the Man of the Match in Wednesday’s game.

Kolkata Knight Riders’ Varun Chakravarthy, the Man of the Match in Wednesday’s game. PTI Photo

The 21-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore is sure to do Kolkata Knight Riders’ confidence a world of good. It wasn’t just their second win over RCB in this IPL but also helped them get back to winning ways after four consecutive defeats.

This was a timely triumph ahead of their clash against a buoyant Gujarat Titans at Eden Gardens on Saturday. Captain Nitish Rana, though, reminded his players not to get too carried away at the Chinnaswamy on Wednesday night.

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“We need to continue with our processes which we have been focusing on since the beginning. We shouldn’t be too happy with this win either,” the skipper told KKR Knight Club.

“Agreed, this has come after four straight defeats, something that will be spoken of. But we need to stay humble and continue with the stuff we have been concentrating on. If we keep doing so, you never know, anything can happen then,” Rana stressed.

After the batters combined well to post a 200-run total, spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Suyash Sharma exerted further pressure on the RCB line-up by picking wickets at regular intervals which also checked the run flow.

Importantly, the Knight Riders could bank on the duo even after ace spinner Sunil Narine turned out to be ineffective for the fifth game on the trot.

Suyash, though, has been consistent throughout. But what matters more for the Knights is the rhythm of Chakravarthy, especially with Narine going through a lean patch.

“I worked on my accuracy rather than on too many other variations,” Chakravarthy said at the news conference after the Knights’ comprehensive win in Bangalore.

“Another aspect I was working on was revolutions on the ball. I was working with AC Partibhan, who’s a spin coach back in Chennai. It definitely worked.

“As for the tactics, what (assistant coach) Abhishek Nayar tells me, always works. So they both have played a very good role in my comeback,” Chakravarthy, Man of the Match with 3/27, emphasised.

At present the Knights’ highest wicket-taker with 13 scalps, Chakravarthy is trusting his regained confidence to pull him through. “You have to be confident with every ball you bowl. If you slip in terms of confidence, the effort you’re putting in is not going to get translated in your bowling,” the 31-year-old pointed out.

“I did watch the previous matches when I played against RCB. I saw those videos. I could see the technical aspects of their batsmen and where they were trying to hit. And I was focusing on that,” he added.

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