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Australia's T20 World Cup 2021-winning captain Aaron Finch felt 'very strange' as he watched Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) approach the run chase of 199 against Gujarat Titans (GT) at their homeground on April 21. Iyer who was roped in for Rs 23.75 crore in the mega auction struggled in the middle and could score just 14 runs from 19 balls. When he departed, KKR were 84/3 in 11.3 overs and the run rate had already climbed over 13 runs per over.
"They had nine batters in their team. That automatically tells me they are going to be ultra aggressive at the start, try to get up to or ahead of the [required] run rate, so that when the wicket deteriorates, there's room for error. For me, that was just a really poor calculation of how to go about a run chase of 200. There are nine batters, you don't need to rebuild anything," Finch said on ESPNCricinfo's Timed Out show.
"The game was over after ten [overs], wasn't it? They just let the required run rate get so far out of hand. It was so strange to watch them just trying to knock it around. Very, very strange innings."
Finch felt that KKR were aiming to not lose wickets despite having a long batting lineup where impact player Angkrish Raghuvanshi walked in to bat at no.9.
"They went out with the attitude not to lose by 100 runs. It was almost like, 'You know what, let's get 160, and we'll walk off. We'll be okay with that.' That was a horrible batting display," the former Australian batter who has represented nine IPL franchises.
Replacing Quinton de Kock in the opening slot was Rahmanullah Gurbaz who was dismissed lbw by Mohammed Siraj in the first over. Sunil Narine could not score well and departed for a 13-ball 17. Rahane was the top run-scorer with 50 runs from 36 balls. By the time Rinku Singh and Andre Russell arrived in the middle, it was too steep a task for them to pull off. Raghuvanshi brought down the loss margin with his unbeaten 13-ball 27. This is KKR's fifth loss from eight games and their chances of making it to playoffs look bleak.
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