Kolkata: Last year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) title clash, Kolkata Knight Riders Will close the horns with (KKR) Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) Garden of Eden Here on Thursday. But this is a rigorous reality investigation for both sides after the IPL mega auction as they have failed to repeat the success of last year so far.
With each two losses in the first three matches, KKR and SRH find themselves dull at the lower half of the points. It is still an early day and there is no immediate need to press the panic button, but the two sides will be desperate to bring back their campaign back to the track as soon as possible.
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For this to happen, both teams need to correct their early acts.
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Most of the success of KKR and SRH in the previous season can be attributed to their openers. The sides features prominently between the all -time highest powerplay scorer of the IPL. While SRH occupies the top two slots, holds up 125/0 (vs. DC in 2024) and 107/0 (vs. LSG in 2024), KKR is third in 2017 with a score of 105/0 vs RCB.
Gautam Gambhir ordered Sunil Narin and ordered 14 different inaugural combinations in 2022–23 sessions. After last year’s auction, however, KKR received a new inauguration pair, in which Quinton de Kock transformed Phil Salat into a woman’s partner.
Although in the first match, Narin hit 44 and D Coke hit 97 in the team’s winning reason against Rajasthan Royals, KKR has failed to put his rivals under scorboard pressure, with a score of 60/1, 40/0 and 41/4 in three matches with the lowest first-high score of the season.
Last year, KKR’s initial pair was so prominent and the middle-order was so consistent that they did not have to rely on finishers in most of their matches. No Wonder Nights Rising star Rinku Singh started playing only 113 balls in the last season, when KKR lost only three times.
SRH started from where he left 94/1 last year in his initial match against Rajasthan Royals in Powerplay. But since then, they have been quit to find for that impressive start to get 62/2 and 58/4 in the next two matches.
The Orange Army has lost regular wickets (seven) like KKR, who had lost five wickets in the first six overs, harassing their progress. Although Travis Head seemed dangerous many times, young man Abhishek Sharma is not on fire yet.
With a large hit such as Ishaan Kishan and Heinrich Klassen, a fast start can set a tone for SRH batsmen to take the game away from any opposition.
Poor bowling in powerplay also
To make cases worse, both sides have failed to create inroads early while bowling. They have allowed their protests to get down rapidly from the block and thus lost control of the proceedings.
KKR bowlers have managed 80, 54 and 65 runs managing just two wickets in the first six overs, SRH bowlers have also proved to be expensive – 77, 77 and 52 runs claiming four wickets.
Now the time has come to start in both departments properly.
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