Image Credit- BCCI
Yesterday at the Eden Gardens, in a match that saw unbelievable levels of six-hitting from both sides, Punjab Kings accomplished the most successful T20 chase in history, destroying Kolkata Knight Riders’ 261 with eight balls remaining.
Bowlers have been under pressure more than ever because of the season’s abundance of big scores, which have already included six totals of 250 or more. Assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate of KKR also believed that taking on the task head-on is the best approach to get out of the woods, especially on an evening when his bowlers had a rude awakening.
“I don’t think it augurs well for the contest between bat and ball, but the facts are that it is here for the season,” said ten Doeschate at the post-match press conference.
“There are two ways you can look at it. You can step back and say ‘oh it’s unfair, we are bowling machines’ or you can sat ‘we are going to find a way, we are going to be a point of difference compared to other teams’, ‘we are gonna try new things’, ‘we are gonna embrace the challenge’. Yes it’s going to be tough, but you got to find innovative and new ways for the next four weeks at least, it (this season) is going to be there that long, so no point crying about it. Everything was already in the batter’s favour, I feel sorry for the bowlers as it’s gone more towards their side now. But those are the facts, the realities. My way to deal with this would be to find a way to land a punch back at the batters.”
The 270-run barrier has already been broken three times in the 2024 IPL season; KKR themselves did it once, while SRH also broke the 285-run barrier in their match against RCB. In these conditions, KKR’s 261 may have seemed a little lower, but ten wickets silenced any criticism on the need for additional runs on a very fine batting pitch. With Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer, and Andre Russell making brief appearances, Sunil Narine and Phil Salt set the tone for Knight Riders’ nearly flawless batting effort. Though that would be nitpicking, KKR may have gone over 275 in retrospect.
“What type of score is a good score? 260 has gotta be a good score. We didn’t stop scoring boundaries. Sunil and Salt were fantastic, it was nice to see the captain get a bit of rhythm again – probably the biggest positive for us tonight. We could play on this piece of marble here and if you give me 260 runs, it should be enough. There is a danger of aiming too high. We need to aim for at least 240 if the wicket is as good as this.”