Kolkata Knight Riders’ head coach Jacques Kallis has insisted his team is yet to play it’s best game in the ongoing season and would be tough to beat once the players manage to do that.
The two-time Indian Premier League champions suffered their second defeat in six matches when they were beaten by 4-wickets by Gujarat Lions on Friday night (April 21) at the Eden Gardens. Batting first, the home team rode on half-century from Robin Uthappa and a quickfire knock from Sunil Narine to post 187 for 5.
Promoted in the batting order once agaain, Narine blasted 42 off just 17 balls to give Kolkata the best possible start. They were 109 for 1 after 11 overs and were looking destined for a score of over 200. However, the Gujarat Lions bowlers managed to pull off things in the later part of the innings and restricted Kolkata to 187. That Kolkata managed to hit over 10 runs in an over only twice after the powerplay is a proof that how they struggled to change gears towards the end.
In reply, the visitors enjoyed a similar start with their openers Aaron Finch and Brendon McCullum firing on all cylinders right from the word go. They added 42 runs in just 3.2 overs before the Australian was dismissed by Nathan Coulter-Nile for a 15-ball 31. McCullum was next to go after scoring 33 while Dinesh Karthik (3), Ishan Kishan (4) and Dwayne Smith (5) could not do much with the bat but their skipper Suresh Raina held firm from one end and scored 84 off just 46 deliveries to steer his team to a comfortable win. He was dismissed when his team just 8 from the final 13 deliveries before Ravindra Jadeja and James Faulkner ended the formalities in the penultimate over.
Speaking after the match, Kallis praised Raina for his match-winning knock. But at the same time he rued that his bowlers did not bowl well to the Gujarat Lions skipper.
“Every player has got his place. Some can rotate strike, some can hit big. Raina is a good all-round player,” Kallis said while praising the left-hander. “I don’t think we bowled as well to him as we could have done and should have done. When good players get off to a good start, it’s difficult to contain them. Raina played really well to hold the innings together.”
He further defended his bowlers saying that his team would think about a better game plan in the coming matches.
“We don’t become a bad bowling unit after just one game. We will have some good game plans in place,” Kallis said.
Speaking about Gujarat Lions’ batting approach, Kallis said his team was expecting a attacking start from the visitors before saying that his team could have defended the total.
“We knew they would come out firing. They are a dangerous side with dangerous players. They batted really well under pressure, chasing that total down. But I still feel we could have defended that total we got. It was certainly not one of our best bowling performances. We picked up a few wickets after the rain break. They managed to get a couple of partnerships going,” Kallis added.
Kolkata’s next game is against the star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore. The runners-up of last year got back to winning ways with an emphatic 21-run win over Gujarat Lions in their last game and Kolkata will have their task cut out against them.
Kallis concluded by saying his team is yet to play its best brand of cricket and would be tough to beat once they manage to do that.
“We still have a lot of confidence. The boys are playing with freedom and playing well. We haven’t been able to put up a complete game so far, but when we start doing that we will be a tough side to beat,” Kallis said.