Former India opener and Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir criticised KKR’s top order failure while chasing a colossal total of 221 against Chennai Super Kings at Wankhede Stadium last night. KKR’s top order succumbed to Deepak Chahar’s bowling and lost five wickets inside the power play.
Chahar grabbed his second four-for of the season. When KKR were tottering at 31/5, their lower order batter Andre Russell saved the Men in Purple from the carnage. Russell’s rampage 54 added life to the chase. But a clever delivery from Sam Curran stopped the apocalypse. Pat Cummins, too, got his hands on the bat and bought KKR over the 200 marks with his lusty blows.
KKR’s top order should be blamed – Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir slammed the top-order for not showing enough application at the Wankhede. Gambhir, who has won two IPL titles with Kolkata in 2012 and 2014, stated that there was no need to panic while chasing 220 against MS Dhoni & Co at Wankhede.
“The top order [needs to be blamed]. Eventually, they [the lower order] ran out of partners. It’s not that they couldn’t have chased this total, but they just ran out of partners. If No. 6, 7 and 8 can take you this close then it shows that there was no application. Chasing 220, there are certain venues like Wankhade or Chinnaswamy where you don’t need to panic,” Gautam Gambhir told ESPNcricinfo.
Recalling the 2014 final, where KKR chased a target of 200 at M Chinnaswamy Stadium against Punjab Kings (back then Kings XI Punjab), Gambhir told the batters to keep the resilience intact. Gambhir reckoned the pitch was the paradise for the batters. But one silly mistake from any of them they could lose the match in the initial overs.
“I remember in the 2014 IPL final; we were chasing 200. And I got into the dressing room during the innings break, and I said only one thing: ‘We will never be able to win the game in the first five overs, but we can easily lose it in the first 5-6 overs.”
“Even if we need 50 or 60 in the last five overs, even 80, we are still in the game. But don’t go bang-bang thinking we have to chase this in the first 6 overs and end up losing 5-6 wickets’. That is exactly what KKR did today,” he concluded.
