Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) started off their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 campaign with a loss to Punjab Kings (PBKS) in a rain-curtailed affair on April 1. Nitish Rana who made his IPL captaincy debut faltered with his tactics and stuck with five bowlers as PBKS batters made use of slog overs and posted a 191/5 at PCA IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali.
In the post-match presentation he explained why he did not use left-arm spinner Anukul Roy and Caribbean pacer Andre Russell’s services.
“Was thinking of using Anukul with the ball but didn't find the right situation for it. Russell not bowling at the death wasn't because of any injury issue. I just felt like going with my five main bowlers. They batted well, judged the wicket better than us,” Rana said.
KKR lost the game by seven runs as per Duckworth Lewis Stern (DLS) method. Rain stopped play after 16th over of KKR’s run chase. KKR still needed 56 runs from four overs with Shardul Thakur and Sunil Narine in the middle. Rana believes that the game was still wide open had rain not played spoilsport.
“Anything could've happened if the rain didn't arrive. Venkatesh got out unfortunately as we were trying to get ahead on DLS. The shot was on. Overall it was a good game. Plenty of learnings from it. It's only the first game of the season,” Rana added.
In the run chase, Rana batted at no.5 and scored 24 runs from 17 balls including three fours and one six. The southpaw became Zimbabwe all-rounder Sikandar Raza’s maiden IPL wicket. Roy was sent at no.3 to increase the scoring rate but he lost his wicket to Arshdeep Singh.
Venkatesh Iyer was used as impact player. Instead of opening the innings, he came out to bat at no.4. The left-handed batter scored 34 runs from 28 balls including three fours and one six. Iyer lost his wicket to left-arm pacer Arshdeep as well in the 16th over which had an impact on DLS par score.
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