Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) fast-bowler Ishant Sharma has blamed the dew factor and the two-paced pitch after KXIP suffered their first defeat of this season against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens on Thursday.
After being invited to bat first, KXIP made a blazing start with their openers adding 53 runs in the first five overs but the failure of the batsmen to capitalise on the good starts saw them getting restricted to 170 for 9. In reply, the home side rode their skipper Gautam Gambhir and surprise opener Sunil Narine’s heroics to make light work of that total. With Chris Lynn out due to a shoulder injury, Sunil Narine opened the innings with his skipper. It turned out to be a masterstroke as the spinner blasted 37 runs off just 18 deliveries to give his team a flying start. KKR eventually chased down the total by losing just 2 wickets and with 21 balls remaining.
Speaking after the match, Ishant said the ball was gripping on the wicket early on but became easy to bat on once the dew came into play.
“Initially, when we were batting, the ball was sticking into the wicket if you are hitting the length,” Ishant said. “But as the dew comes in, the ball was coming nicely onto the bat. And obviously in six overs if you give 80 runs (76), I don’t think you can win even if you score 200.”
He further said the dew was also making it tough for the spinners to even grip the ball
“It’s affecting too much. The spinners can’t grip the ball and as you can see, the ball was skidding on nicely to the bat. It was very difficult because in this format you need to have variation. Mohit was trying to bowl slower bouncers but it was coming on nicely. It was not stopping on the wicket. The dew has a big role in this format.”
The Eden Gardens wicket also surprised one and all with the bounce. The pitch had traditionally played low and slow -conditions which suited Kolkata’s spinners and was a big factor behind their domination at home in the past few seasons. But the newly-laid wicket offered good bounce and ensured a proper competition between bat and ball. The KKR bowlers did not start brightly but did well in the end overs to restrict KXIP to a below par total.
Commenting on the wicket, the former KKR pacer said: “When I played here in my first three years, it was really slow. Now there is a bit of carrying in the wicket so I think it’s good for the fast bowlers. You hardly get this kind of wicket in India.”
When asked whether his team was surprised to see Narine opening the innings, the lanky pacer said: “Actually we were quite surprised. Maxi (Glenn Maxwell) told us even in the CPL and the Big Bash League, he opened. We didn’t know how he was going to bat. We were thinking about Robin Uthappa.”