IPL: Purple Knights hit by middle-order blues

Connecting both defeats for the defending champs was the failure of key batters Rinku Singh, Andre Russell and Venkatesh Iyer

Kolkata: To death, taxes and global warming add Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) losing to Mumbai Indians (MI) at Wankhede Stadium as life’s certainties. Monday’s humbling was their 10th at the venue by the five-time champions and an IPL record the defending champions would rather not own.

Kolkata Knight Riders' Venkatesh Iyer during the match against Mumbai Indians. (AFP)

All those who thought last year’s comfortable win had ended the jinx were in for a rude awakening when, with a batter as impact player, KKR were all out in 16.2 overs. And this wasn’t the worst the Knights have fared at Wankhede. That happened in 2008 when KKR lasted exactly one over less and were dismissed for 67.

On either side of the comfortable win against Rajasthan Royals this season, KKR have lost by big margins. That could bode ill for a side that in 2019 and 2020 missed out on the last-four stage on net run rate.

The circumstances of the defeats to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and MI were different, the conditions too, but connecting both was the failure of the middle-order. Specifically, as per batting order, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh and Andre Russell. In both matches, they fell to poor shots.

Exactly how important the trio is to the franchise can be gauged by the amounts KKR have spent to on them. At ₹13 crore, Singh is the highest paid player to be retained by KKR this term. Russell was retained for ₹12 crore. And for Iyer, possibly a future captain, KKR paid ₹23.75 crore.

The trio fell to spin in the IPL18 opener. On Monday, they were foxed by pace. Their dismissals at Eden meant KKR choking in the middle overs after being 107/2 after 10. Against MI, it denied the three-time champions a chance to repair early damage.

Iyer’s dismissal reduced KKR to 41/4 after 5 4 overs. It was difficult to come back after that, said KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane. Iyer had resisted playing an upper cut off Deepak Chahar but went for the same shot next ball but the ball was too close to his body.

With the top three out and with Angkrish Raghuvanshi going well, it may not have been the best shot to attempt in conditions aiding bounce and swing. Against RCB, Iyer had been surprised by Krunal Pandya trying to bounce him before dragging one to his stumps while trying to force it to the on-side.

Having hit a four off debutant Ashwani Kumar, Singh gave the debutant pacer the charge the next ball which was slightly wider and bounced more. The shot gained more height than distance. Singh looked visibly angry but KKR were 74/6 in the 11th over.

It was important that Singh, who had given Pandya his wicket at Eden off his last ball, and impact player Manish Pandey try and build a partnership, but the former decided to continue trying to attack.

Russell was done in by Kumar’s smarts. Unable to read Suyash Sharma’s googly at Eden and having his furniture disturbed, Russell was bowled in Mumbai as well. He too had hit a four before Kumar bowled short and wide and then went full at the stumps.

“We were fighting against the bounce. Sometimes, you gave got to use the bounce, use the pace of this wicket,” said Rahane in his post-match television interview.

Three matches into the competition last year, all three had set down early markers. Iyer had got the first of his four 50s, against RCB, Russell had blitzed to 64 off 25 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and 41 off 19 against Delhi Capitals and Singh had scored an eight-ball 26 and 23 off 15 balls against Capitals and SRH.

Rahane is known for being calm and, after the seven-wicket defeat to RCB, had spoken of backing players who had won a lot for KKR. After what turned out to be manic Monday, he said: “We’ve got to learn really fast.” Up next is SRH at home on Thursday.