The Kolkata Knight Riders remain finicky about their pitch preference at Eden Gardens ahead of their game against Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday.
The Eden surface used for their previous game, against Sunrisers Hyderabad, was much to the Knight Riders’ liking as they recorded an 80-run win on it on Thursday. Now they want similar characteristics in the other pitch that has been prepared for the Super Giants game, which is a 3.30pm start.
The pitch to be used for the Super Giants match had a little more grass cover than the one used last Thursday. But sources in the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) said that the grass has been trimmed further, which means the surface scheduled for Tuesday’s match will also be dry and help bowlers if they take a bit of pace off alongside aiding spinners a little more.
In other words, it shouldn’t behave much differently than the track for the Sunrisers game.
During Saturday’s optional training session, Knights’ head coach Chandrakant Pandit, bowling coach Bharat Arun and team manager Wayne Bentley were seen speaking to Eden curator Sujan Mukherjee for quite some time, standing on one side of the Sunrisers game pitch.
“KKR seem keen to play on the wicket used last Thursday. But at the moment, it’s difficult since chemicals have been sprayed on that wicket to facilitate the growth of grass.
“Nonetheless, a call on which pitch will be in use for the Lucknow game will be taken tomorrow (Sunday),” a CAB official said.
LSG fines
Skipper Rishabh Pant was fined ₹12 lakh for the Super Giants’ slow over rate in their game against Mumbai Indians in Lucknow on Friday. Their leg-spinner Digvesh Rathi was fined 50 per cent of his match fees for breaching the IPL code of conduct during Friday’s match. With this being Rathi’s second Level I offence under Article 2.5 this season, he has accumulated two demerit points.
