In the end the rains ensured that even the mathematical chance of making it to the semi-finals slipped away. Shah Rukh Khan will never know if his real-life chin-up sms would have had the same effect as the reel-life speech in ‘Chak De! India’. Kolkata Knight Riders are well and truly out of the IPL.But blaming the rain would be erroneous. Captain Sourav Ganguly’s team played with plenty of heart, especially in front of their adrenalin-raising home crowd at Eden Gardens. But their think-tank, led by coach John Buchanan, showed little understanding of the strengths of its own team.
Undeniably, they have been bedeviled by bad luck at least on two counts. One, explosive West Indian hitter Chris Gayle being injured and unable to play even a single game. Two, losing the most proven Twenty20 specialist -Australia’s Brad Hodge - who was unexpectedly recalled for the Test side’s West Indies tour following vice-captain Michael Clarke’s family troubles.
"SRK will never know if his real-life sms
would have had the same effect as the
reel-life speech in ‘Chak De! India’
would have had the same effect as the
reel-life speech in ‘Chak De! India’
But that apart, many of Ganguly’s on-field troubles also have been self-inflicted, arising from non-percentage selections. The think-tank put its money on some rookies overlooking others with better credentials. Few teams have been as muddle-headed in selecting its playing XI as the Knight Riders, evident in the way they cluelessly tampered with the opening pair.
In their first 12 games, the Knights tried out seven opening combos; the Chopra-Hodge being the most baffling. Check out this with the numericals indicating the match number: McCullum-Ganguly: 1,3,4. McCullum-Saha: 2. Butt-Ganguly: 5. Hafeez-Ganguly: 6. Chopra-Hodge: 7. Butt-Chopra: 8, 9, 10. Butt-Hafeez: 11, 12. In all, they have only one 40-plus opening stand.
The team seemed to have little respect for the skills of Umar Gul. In the Twenty20 World Cup last year, the Pakistani paceman was the top wicket-taker, taking 13 wickets in seven games with a fantastic economy rate of 5.60. Yet, the moment Shoaib Akhtar came in, he was dumped.
Akhtar, in his inimitable style, won one game for the Knight Riders but broke down two games later. The KKR thinktank made Gul an either/or issue with Akhtar. The truth is that he is far more value both in money terms as well as in performance to both Akhtar and Ishant Sharma.
"They seemed to have little respect for the skills of Umar Gul.
In the Twenty20 World Cup, He was the top wicket-taker.
The KKR made Gul an either/or issue with Akhtar
In the Twenty20 World Cup, He was the top wicket-taker.
The KKR made Gul an either/or issue with Akhtar
Gul could have easily been preferred for Hafeez, who looks incapable of learning from mistakes. Whenever Gul played, KKR looked a potent bowling unit. He also took care of bowling at the death. Gul first played in KKR’s match 5 against Team Jaipur and took three for 31, followed by two for 27 against Team Mohali.
He then returned with none for 30 in three overs against Bangalore Royal Challengers - the only game where he did not bowl well - and one for 43 against Deccan Chargers. He was dropped thereafter but came back to deliver a crucial two for 30 spell that ensured his team’s unlikely victory over Team Jaipur. But it proved too late. The underutilisation of Gul is a crucial factor in KKR’s misery.
That apart, sending back the hard-hitting Cheteshwar Pujara and a compact middle-order bat like Yashpal Singh without giving them a run when batting was the primary cause of the team’s worries. In fact, a shaky top order was KKR’s worst problem. And yet their last foreign signing is Ajantha Mendis, the talented spinner from Sri Lanka. Talk about mixed priorities.
