Former Australian pacer Brett Lee has advised Kolkata Knight Riders to not follow the strategy that they applied to win against Chennai Super Kings. Despite their 10 runs victory, Brett Lee believes that it was not the right way to execute their plans.
Opting to bat first, KKR opener Rahul Tripathi was the lone warrior for them while other batsmen lost their wickets even below 20 runs mark. Dinesh Karthik was out after scoring 12 runs while Sunil Narine played a cameo role, scoring 17 off 9 balls. On the other hand, Rahul survived until 17 the over and scored 81 off 51 balls, striking eight fours and three sixes. His contribution leads KKR to set up 168 runs target.
In reply, Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis gave the flying start to the team before the latter lost his wicket for 17 runs. But Watson and Ambati Rayudu got the nerves of KKR bowlers. Their partnership was looking threatening before Ryaud threw away his wicket. Soon after, Shane Watson was also sent into the hut by Sunil Narine. CSK was at 101 for 3 and needed a partnership. But Dinesh Karthik bought the mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy into action to change the momentum of the game.
Varun bowled some tight spells while also picked the wicket of MS Dhoni to bring back KKR in the game. Ravindra Jadeja tried to take away the game from them but fell 10 runs short to take his team across the line.
In the match, KKR decided to leave their star bowler Sunil Narine late into the attack. It was the combination of Varun Chakravarthy, Shivam Mavi, Pat Cummins, and Kamlesh Nagarkoti who bowled the entire first half for KKR.
Holding Narine back is not the best thing: Brett Lee
Reviewing the whole game, Brett Lee opined that KKR got away with the match against CSK. But he didn’t agree with KKR’s strategy of keeping Narine so late into the attack.
“KKR got away with it (against CSK) and I think CSK threw it away. I don’t think holding Narine back is the best thing. It worked against CSK but I don’t think it’s the blueprint (for KKR),” Brett Lee said while speaking after the match on Star Sports.
With the win against CSK, KKR has entered in the top four of the IPL 2020 points table with winning three matches out of five. They are set to face KXIP on Saturday.