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How Varun Chakaravarthy shaped KKR’s win
Not only did he dismiss two in-form batters in Gaikwad and Rahane, he also bowled well in the back-end
For the bulk of their IPL campaign, Kolkata Knight Riders didn’t find the pitch at Eden Gardens suited to their strength—spin. The average first innings score was bettered regularly, Sunil Narine was finding his feet and KKR just didn’t seem confident enough to put teams in to bat first.
From that perspective, Chepauk never offered an iota of dilemma. The pitch was slow to begin with, and got slower as IPL 2023 wore on. Till it worked against Chennai Super Kings on Sunday. Fortunately for KKR, Varun Chakaravarthy—the only Chennai player in both teams—was able to make the most of the pitch, tripping up CSK with two vital wickets.
Ruturaj Gaikwad was not at all ready for the seam-up leg-break Chakaravarthy bowled at him, getting bowled trying to slog him. Against Ajinkya Rahane—who prefers playing down the wicket—he bowled a dipping slower ball that Rahane miscued to long-off trrying to come down the pitch. CSK knows all about Chakaravarthy, having tested him as a nets bowler before KKR picked him.
"It still hurts us,” said CSK coach Stephen Fleming later. “He tortured in the nets for a number of years, but with the auction and the way it is, we couldn't retain him. And the thing is with the Tamil Nadu players all around the different teams, they knew about him as well and we were unable to keep him a secret. But we were very excited by him as a talent when he bowled against us in the nets and he went for a big price that first year.”
The only spinner KKR have regularly relied on to bowl in the Powerplays, Chakaravarthy is a third of their plan where Narine and Suyash Sharma are expected to come in the middle overs. It hasn’t always paid dividends.
But on Sunday, on a two-paced pitch that was taking turn, Narine coming back to form was just the push KKR needed to tie CSK in knots. Having conceded nine in his first two overs, Narine proceeded to remove Ambati Rayudu and Moeen Ali. Even Shivam Dube, CSK’s designated spin hitter, could only score four off six balls he faced from Narine.
“When you have Narine and him operating, they're a very potent combo in the right conditions,” said Fleming. “Probably at Kolkata, they don't get the most favourable conditions to bowl on, so coming to conditions like this, they excel."
Since he was not having a good IPL, KKR captain Nitish Rana was justified in allowing Narine to thrive in the early momentum and bowl him out by the 13th over, leaving Chakaravarthy the task of bowling two overs in the back-end. Dube muscled him for a six over midwicket in the 18th over but that was the only boundary hit off Chakaravarthy in his second spell, leaving CSK much to do in the last two overs.
It’s evident Chakaravarthy is being slowly honed for the death bowlers, something Narine used to do previously. Against Sunrisers Chakaravarthy had defended eight in the last over. And now, he has denied CSK a final flourish, helping KKR restrict them to their lowest total in this IPL.
KKR assistant coach Abhishek Nayar attributes this success to the hours Chakaravarthy put in during the off-season.
"After last season, we discussed quite a bit on what we thought went wrong and also I think when you play season after season, teams tend to target you differently," Nayar said at the press conference. "One of the things we tried to do throughout the off-season and throughout the season was to understand the challenges we were going to face. There is a stark difference in terms of how he's using his deliveries, using the one that goes away a lot more than he was doing last year.
"So, a lot of work went in... not just technically and tactically but also understanding his mindset in terms of how individuals are going to target him. I think last year when he didn't have a great season, the ways in which every team was targeting him and certain areas where they constantly hit him. I think once we analysed and understood that, we obviously spoke about getting revs on the ball and getting more bounce and speed off the pitch, and also understanding which areas teams are going to target him.”
