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KKR and their nemesis MI face off at the Abu Dabi international stadium tonight.
But even before getting

into the game tonight, there needs to be a few lines said about the captaincy drama at KKR. Hours
before the commencement of the crucial clash, DK relinquished his leadership responsibilities to Eoin
Morgan. Is it good news for KKR? Well, DK is by no means a Gautam Gambhir, but I have always felt that
DK gets criticized as a leader more than he deserves. He has taken a few positive decisions in the last
few matches and I felt that he was coming into his groove as a captain. If he had to leave his role as the
captain of the side due to some internal strife, it is highly disappointing. Make no mistake about it, I
would have definitely chosen Morgan as captain of my team over DK, any day of the week. But I feel KKR
played it all wrong, by announcing DK as the leader for IPL 2020 and then changing captains midway.
However, for fans who feel that KKR will suddenly look a better outfit with Morgan at the helm, I am
sorry to disappoint them that it won’t happen.
KKR won the toss and chose to bat on a pitch with a slightly greenish tinge to it. KKR made a couple of
good changes to the lineup. As suggested in my previous blog, Green came in place of Banton and the
consistent Mavi replaced the maverick Nagarkoti. MI went in with the express pace of Coulter Nile in
place of Pattinson.
Hands down, KKR batting looked half hearted against a top class MI bowling lineup in the powerplay. It is
clear now, that Gill has been given the same role that Rahul has been given for KXIP. His role is to anchor
the inning from one end while the rest of the batsmen go berserk from another. But problem happens,
when Gill is holding the inning from one end and in a bid to go berserk, the other batsmen are losing
wickets. This is exactly what happened today.
Tripathi was dismissed courtesy of a blinder from Surya Kumar Yadav at point. Rana was dismissed by a
snorter from Bumrah inside the powerplay. Captains have finally understood the impact, their best
bwolers create in the powerplay upfront and have shied from holding them back completely for the
death overs. For the past couple of matches we see Smith doing it with Archer, Rohit using Bumrah for
an over or 2 in the powerplay and the impact has been immediate.
DK came out to bat at 4- something that he was criticized for doing earlier in the tournament. As I stated
earlier in the article, the decision to bat DK at 4 was taken in the past by the team management and
even with Morgan as captain, KKR stuck to the same wrong decision. Running out of partners at the
other end, Gill tried to take on the long-on boundary and holed out to Pollard. Rrahul Chahar dismissed
a very nervy DK, who played onto his stumps.
There is some issue with Russell this season. He is not batting badly. Just that, he is batting mindlessly.
Every single bolwer has executed his plan successfully to dismiss Russell. Be it someone, as experienced
as Rabada or a young chap like Arshdeep, all the oppositions have executed their plans against Russell
successfully. Infact, there has been cases like today, where the opposition captain has brought on his
premier fast bwoler to counter the Russell threat and Russell has exactly fallen to the ploy.
Tonight he fell to the short ball tactic from Bumrah as KKR were left reeling at 61-5. Quite a lot of time,
amidst the Pandyas and Bumrahs of MI, the unassuming Rahul Chahar gets lost. However, make no
mistake about it, he is bowling fabulous line and length and is playing a huge role in MI dominating their
oppsoition in the middle overs.
Pat Cummins and Morgan rescued KKR to a decent score of 147/5 courtesy an unbeaten 87 run
partnership off 57 balls. Cummins batted meticulously, playing the ball on its merit, something that none
of the top order batsmen had done for KKR tonight. However, this was primarily a rearguard action from
the Aussie-English duo and MI were still the favourites going into the 2 nd half of the match.
If there were any hopes for KKR at the halfway stage, it was decimated with the flyer MI got off to. Chris
Green looked at sea against the top class Indian batsman, who played his franchise cricket-famous spin
bowling with utmost ease. Prasid Krishna and Pat Cummins looked in pressure against the in-form duo
of Rohit and QDK from the outset.
There have been many famous acquisitions by MI in the past, but QDK is suddenly making their batting
look much better. Quinton with his aggressive style of play is giving Rohit the time he needs at the
crease for the initial few balls and MI is suddenly looking a champion opposition with a consistent
opening performance.
There was not much left in the match after MI raced to 94-0 in the first 10 overs. Pat Cummins, Parsidh
Krishna, Andre Russell and Mavi bowled too many bad balls and as a result, KKr was never able to build
pressure on Mumbai today. The only KKR bowler worth mentioning tonight is Varun Chakravarthy- the
increasingly impressive mystery spinner who is making this iPL his very own with consistent
performances. Tonight he conceded at an economy of less than 6- a feat he can be proud of against the
intimidating batting line up of MI. At times, even the mighty Rohit Sharma was struggling to pick him off
the hand. Varun was the only positive for KKR from today’s match.
Quinton De Kock played a silky smooth inning of 78 from 44 deliveries to guide MI to a clinical win.
Everything seems to be working for MI and DC this season as bothof them are looking a league apart
from the rest. As for KKR, I had predicted in my past blogs, leadership change won’t spin a magic wand
on the team. Today’s performance of KKR was an ideal proof of that. Even a WC winning captain can
look ordinary if the bowlers do not take wickets and the batsmen do not score runs.

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KKR and their nemesis MI face off at the Abu Dabi international stadium tonight.

But even before getting

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