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After bouncing back strongly with four wins from five encounters, Delhi Capitals were lethargic against Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday at the Eden Gardens. The visitors opted to bat first and could only manage 153 runs after scoring over 200 runs in their last two encounters against Gujarat Giants and Mumbai Indians.
DC the hero Rishabh PantThe decision to bat first was not appreciated by the pundits as he hit the former in below average outings against the team KKR.
The team’s openers were looking positive after Prithvi Shaw hit 3 boundaries off Mitchell Starc in the first over. However, he was dismissed by Vaibhav Arora in the next over. Shaw was soon followed by Jake Fraser-McGurk who released Starc for a boundary and a six but was caught in the deep. Wickets continued to roll thereafter as KKR were not given any chance to gain momentum.
KKR did not waste much time as they wrapped up the match in the 17th over courtesy of Phil Salt’s heroics and Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer’s finishing touches.
Former Australian cricketer Michael Clarke believed that the 2020 runners-up would have faced a deficit of around 50 runs if they had planned to bat first because they did not have enough runs in hand to defend.
“I’m not sure I agree with everything that was said after the game. You win, you get it right, you lose, and then you don’t get it right. I think he made a mistake in batting on that surface. And I don’t think he was 10 runs short, They were 50 runs short,” Clarke told Star Sports.
“There were still 3.3 overs left in the run chase and KKR had lost just 3 wickets. KKR would have made at least 40 if not 50. So, I think DC need 200 if they are going to bat first,” he said.
Meanwhile, former India opener Akash Chopra expressed shame over the DC skipper’s first batting gamble as it put him in the light of questions.
“Who bats first after winning the toss? I’m not criticizing much but if it’s true I have to talk about it. The team that won the toss has batted first only twice in the last 30 matches here and who lost. Not that you always win when chasing but nobody bats first in Kolkata. Won’t,” Chopra said in a video on his YouTube channel.
Chopra asserted that the batting would have been easier in the second innings and who else but DC coach Sourav Ganguly could have interpreted the pitch.
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“Anyway, batting will be a bit easier later but Delhi said they will bat first. I was surprised. If Sourav Ganguly can’t read this pitch, who can? This pitch is like the back of his palm. You know. It didn’t make sense,” added the former India opener.
After faltering against the hosts, DC have slipped to No.6 in the points table with 5 wins from 11 matches. KKR’s rocketry in the chase saw their run-rate drop massively at -0.442.
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