Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Shreyas Iyer deconstructed their first loss of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season which came against five-time champion Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. On Monday, Ravindra Jadeja spearheaded the bowling attack for the hosts which laid the foundation for a comprehensive seven-wicket for CSK on a Chepauk track which stayed to its true nature and fell on the slower side. After losing Philip Salt’s wicket on the very first ball of the innings, KKR managed to finish the powerplay with a score of 56/1.
After that point, KKR struggled to adjust to the surface and toiled hard for putting up runs on the board.
“I personally feel we fell short in terms of assessing the wicket. We were phenomenal in the powerplay but after that, we couldn’t capitalise, we lost consecutive wickets. We weren’t able to assess the conditions as quickly as possible. It completely changed after the powerplay and scoring runs off this wicket wasn’t easy,” Iyer said after the match.
On a surface that saw Jadeja claim three wickets for just 18 runs in his four-over spell, KKR spinners struggled to find the rhythm against CSK batters and conceded 74 runs in just 9.4 overs.
“Obviously, they know conditions pretty well and they bowled according to their plan. It was a bit tacky, especially even when the hard-hitters came in, it wasn’t easy for them to go [big] right from the first ball. It changed tremendously after the powerplay. We were trying to construct our innings, didn’t go to plan. We take those learnings and move forward,” he added.
The spin trio of Jadeja, Maheesh Theekshana and Rachin Ravindra combined to bowl nine overs, conceded just 50 runs and claimed four wickets to restrict KKR to a sub-par total of 137/9.
“We were in a comfortable place at the beginning, we thought 160-170 would be a great score on this wicket. Even when they played against RCB, the conditions were fairly similar. So that was our plan but when you lose consecutive wickets, it’s difficult to carry forward momentum,” Iyer said.
“I am glad this happened at the start of the tournament. When we go back, we know our home conditions pretty well. We need to analyse the situations and need to make the best use of it,” he concluded
While chasing 138, CSK hardly broke a sweat as they sailed to a comprehensive 7-wicket win with skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (67*) producing the standout performance from the bat.
