match( kolkata knight riders vs rajasthan royals) just got over. KKR lost again and virtually out of the semi-final of the indian premier league(IPL). it’s disappointing enough to see the team loosing and more when the team owner shah rukh khan (SRK) is a man for whom loosing is not an option. it’s sad. ganguly and co. you have let all of us KKR fans down and obviously disgraced SRK’s name.
am not an expert. but as an avid cricket enthusiast, i have seen enough of the game to say a few points which may have led to such an ordinary performance by the KKR.
sourav ganguly using this tournament to get a call back into the indian ODI side. this was evident, agree or not. he looked more eager to prove that he is better than laxman and dravid. this is the reason he forced himself to play shots, more often than not, and got himself out in the process. remember what he said when he scored an odd 90 runs in a match……hope that indian selectors are watching. ganguly is a prolific batsman and could have done lot better had he not used this tournament as a stepping stone to get back his blue (indian) jersy.
KKR always lacked a player with all-round capability. like pathan and james hopes for kings XI punjab, bravo and pollock for mumbai indians, morkel for chennai super kings, shane watson for rajasthan royals. if you thinking that ganguly, agarkar and laxmi ratan shukla are all-rounders, no they are not. you can not count them among the names that i have mentioned above. certainly not.
too much dependence on local players for the domestic player quota of 8. especially on the batting front. except ganguly i don’t think there are any other domestic batsman on that team who can win you a match. an indian (not just a bengal player) batsman would have definitely strengthened the batting line up. even the presence of manoj tiwari, a bengal player in that batting line up would have helped enormously. guys like laxmi, akash chopra and debabrata have done well, but certainly they can’t fill the shoes of a rohit sharma, robin uthapa, gautam gambhir or even suresh raina and mohd kaif. all in all KKR lacked a good indian batsman in the batting department.
to discuss the above point a little further, is the cap on the total bidding amount($ US 5 million) restricted ganguly (since he was present in the auction) and the management to buy a good indian batsman or ganguly deliberately decided not to. why i am raising this point is because of my notion that ganguly just wanted to prove, he is better than the current bunch of indian ODI and T20 players and so he can win without any of them. i may be wrong, but this has costed KKR a semi-final berth in the IPL.
how come mumbai indians and kings XI punjab could always bring in a replacement for the foreign player’s they lost due to their respective national assignments. i am talking about players like shaun marsh and bravo. why did not KKR do so when the likes of ponting, gayle and bredon left?
3 batsmen and 1 bowler quota of foreign players was always wrong for KKR, especially when gul had to sit out because of shoiab akhtar playing. if six batsmen can not score enough, playing seven batsmen never helps. imagine gul bowling 1 or 2 decent overs from those 8 overs bowled in that rain affected match against chennai super kings, when shoiab got injured after bowling 2 overs and went out. chennai super kings own that match by just 3 runs, decided via D/L method.
these are just a few things which i feel have gone wrong with the KKR. there also have been few positives in that team. ashoke dhinda as a bowler has done supremely well and i hope he continue to do so. also it would be unfair if i do not name the wicket keeper wridhiman shah. he comes along as a fine weeket keepr and a more than handy batsman.
5 wins out of 12 matches for KKR. and now 2 more to go. as i have said, a semi-final place now is virtually ruled out. but the KKR now has a lot to play for, and that is, the pride of its fans and supporters.
about me……well once a KKR fan, always a KKR fan. little disappointed now, but you can count me cheering at the top of my lung in the remaining two matches.
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