KOLKATA: What can be considered a safe total? That question would be haunting the Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad ahead of their clash at the Eden Gardens on Thursday.They would have been happy putting up more than 200 runs in their opening games of the season, but despite that they ended up as the losing sides. It’s hard to digest, but harder to find a way out.Both teams are struggling to get a Plan B in place after losing some key players even before the first ball was bowled in this IPL. Interestingly, it’s their bowling that has taken the worst hit, which made KKR coach Abhishek Nayar and his SRH counterpart Daniel Vettori’s jobs more difficult in getting the right team combination. All the six bowlers used by the sides in their opening match were taken to the cleaners by the rival batters.KKR have always banked on their spinners and in the absence of their key pacers Harshit Rana and Matheesha Pathirana, who is yet to join the side, the role of Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine turned out to be more crucial.Missing Cameron Green the bowler definitely deprived the side of an option, but KKR’s spin duo going for 78 runs in their combined seven overs against Mumbai Indians should be a bigger concern for them. Chakaravarthy looked low on confidence as his poor run from T20 World Cup Super Eights continued and Narine too failed to put the brakes.It was poor captaincy on the part of Ajinkya Rahane for not bowling Narine, who was KKR’s most economical bowler of the night, against Rohit Sharma, against whom he enjoys a good record. On the other hand Royal Challengers Bengaluru getting 203 runs in just over 15 overs speaks poorly of SRH’s bowlers.KKR’s middle order was an area of concern last season and the same problem returned to trouble them. KKR got off to a decent 78/1 in the Powerplay against MI. But it was in the middle overs that they lost the momentum getting just 19 runs in three (12-14) overs. Rinku Singh and Ramandeep Singh failed to fill the void left behind by Andre Russell in the lower order.SRH are missing their regular skipper Pat Cummins and like last season, they continued to give away runs in the Powerplay conceding 76 against RCB. Expect a few changes as both camps will look to rectify things while KKR will hope for a great home run in their next three games.NUMBERS GAME
- 3 – Three hundreds have been recorded for SRH vs KKR in the IPL — 126 by David Warner at Hyderabad on April 30, 2017; 100* by Harry Brook at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on April 14, 2023 and 105* off 39 balls by Heinrich Klaasen at Delhi on May 25, 2025.
- 6.80 – Economy rate by Sunil Narine while claiming 193 wickets at 25.65 runs apiece in 190 matches — the best among bowlers with 150 wickets or more in the IPL.
(Stats: Rajesh Kumar)
