Dinesh Karthik, who is the skipper of Kolkata Knight Riders had planned things remarkably well — to strangulate the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) owing to their run chase of 168 in the 21st match of the IPL 2020. However, KKR successfully managed to restrict at 157 in their 20 allotted overs. Recently, there have been calls to replace Dinesh Karthik as a leader with England’s 2019 World Cup-winning skipper Eoin Morgan. Despite that, the latest victory has instilled some confidence in the wicketkeeper-batsman, Karthik.
Batting first, opener Rahul Tripathi’s 81 laid the foundation of Kolkata Knight Riders’ innings as they managed 167 after playing their full stipulated 20 overs. Rahul Tripathi, who replaced Sunil Narine as the opening batsman, stayed till the 17th over to guide the Knight Riders to a competitive total.
Earlier, the likes of Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine began promisingly but could not play big innings.
Dinesh Karthik Thought That KKR Will Ease Sunil Narine’s Pressure And Send Rahul Tripathi Up The Batting Order
It would be an understatement to note that Chennai Super Kings were cruising at the half-way mark of their innings by posting 90 runs in 10 overs. After blasting 83 against Kings XI Punjab, Shane Watson was once again in the scheme of things, scoring a fifty to set up the foundation.
However, Dinesh Karthik made some smart bowling changes to choke the Chennai Super Kings’ run chase. The yellow army also made a tactical error by holding back all-rounder Dwayne Bravo and instead sent out of form Kedar Jadhav, who struggled even to rotate the strike.
Dinesh Karthik feels delighted of having a player of Sunil Narine’s calibre and underlined that to reduce the pressure on him, the management decided to open with Rahul Tripathi instead.
Dinesh Karthik Hails Varun Chakravarthy And Sunil Narine For Delivering At the Back End
The 35-year old went on to praise the flexibility in their batting line-up and lauded spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine to tie down the Chennai Super Kings’ batsmen, who began the chase well. The two spinners picked up the critical scalps of Shane Watson who scored 50 and CSK skipper MS Dhoni.
“There are some key players. Sunil Narine is one of us. The least we can do is back him. I am really proud of him as a player. We thought we will ease Sunny’s pressure a little bit and send Rahul up. Our batting is very fluid,” Dinesh Karthik told in the post-match presentation.
“I started at 3, I am batting at 7. That is the good thing. Over the years fluid line-ups have dine better. The way they batted at the start they did really well, but at the back end I had great faith in Sunny and Varun. That paid off for me.”
Sunil Narine had figures of 1/31 while Varun Chakravarthy had figures of 1/28 in four overs. CSK started well in their chase as they were cruising at 99/1 in the 12th over but could score only 58 runs in next 8 overs as they fell short by 10 runs despite Ravindra Jadeja’s cameo. Shane Watson scored 50 and Ambati Rayudu scored 30 but Dwayne Bravo missed out on a chance to bat.