After suffering a heart-breaking loss against Mumbai Indians on Sunday (April 9), Kolkata Knight Riders batsman Manish Pandey has said that it is high time his team does a serious thinking about the death bowling.
For the second game in a row, the Kolkata bowlers conceded 175-plus and had to suffer their first defeat of the season. Batting first, they posted 178 for 7 in the allotted 20 overs and were looking destined to add two more points to their kitty when Mumbai Indians were reeling at 119 for 5 in the seventeenth over with all of their big batsmen back in the hut. However, Gautam Gambhir’s men failed to keep Nitish Rana (50 off 29 balls) and Hardik Pandya (29* off 11 balls) as they scored the remaining runs with one ball to spare.
Even during the first game against Gujarat Lions, they had conceded 42 runs off the last three overs which helped Suresh Raina’s men to put up a huge total of 183. But that score did not prove enough in the end as Gambhir and Chris Lynn chased down the total with utmost ease. However, the failure to improve their death bowling cost them dear against Mumbai as they lost the match from a strong position.
These are still early days in the tournament and KKR would be desperate to sort out the issue before the tournament enters its business end.
“Even during the first game, we struggled a little with the death bowling. Pandey said at the post-match conference.“We can improve a little more here because this is two games in a row. It is high time we start thinking and have some mind and thoughts towards this in the meeting as well.”
The KKR star also had a word of praise for his India teammate Hardik Pandya after his brilliant cameo with the bat.
“I think he is a very good player.He is coming up to be a very good all-rounder for the Indian team. He has grown matured as a player and he is gaining confidence with all these matches,” he said.
Pandey further said he was very satisfied with his knock. At 131 for 5 in the seventeenth over, KKR were in danger of squandering a good start but Pandey guided them to a decent total with a brilliant knock of 81 runs off only 47 balls. The knock was studded with 5 fours and 5 maximums.
“It was definitely satisfying. From where I started, I wanted to finish it how I finished today. But I was just taking one ball at a time even talking to the next batsman. So, I think that’s what I did and it was important for me to stay till the twentieth over. That’s where I can play my game and finish matches like these,” he concluded.