At a pivotal point in the qualification process, the home team was naturally in good spirits after a thrilling last-ball match at the Eden Gardens that was won by the Kolkata Knight Riders by a single run. “Such wins will give us the momentum and give us the self-belief that we can pull tight wins,” Varun Chakaravarthy stated. “This is exactly what we needed, and we are confident we can pull off the next three matches.”
The Rajasthan Royals, on the other hand, were devastated by their failure to win another game. They have had a close but unsuccessful season due to their Super Over loss to the Delhi Capitals, their 2-run loss to the Lucknow Super Giants, their 11-run loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and now their 1-run loss to KKR.
“If I am counting right, it’s the fourth game in which we got into a position where we should have won it but were unable to finish it. That’s the kind of season which we have had,'” Vikram Rathour, RR’s batting coach, said.
KKR was able to thread together a few tight deliveries after Riyan Parag, the stand-in captain, was dismissed in the 18th over to Harshit Rana’s slower ball. Parag struck 95 off 45 and even hammered Moeen Ali for five sixes in one over, giving the impression that he would lead his team home. It meant that Shubham Dubey’s cameo wasn’t good enough with 22 runs needed to be scored off the last over.
“Riyan Parag getting out [was the turning point]. If he was in there, I am sure he would have finished it off,” Rathour said, who went on to add about how the side hasn’t clicked as a bunch and that’s cost them games.
“Almost every batter has scored a run. They are batting effectively in the nets and are in good shape. However, it hasn’t been occurring all at once. In the same way, we have witnessed some excellent individual bowling performances, but perhaps we haven’t bonded as a team. Perhaps the fielding hasn’t made much of a difference. One thing we have overlooked is that. There were a lot of things that went wrong for us this season, and there are a lot of things that we need to work on and improve.
“There is no issue with the quality. We have really good quality in our batting. We were not able to close the game and finish it. I am sure that in the next couple of seasons, we will be a really good batting group and a really good team to compete against.”
Rathour also mentioned Jos Buttler’s departure from RR. The overseas batter that was kept on, Shimron Hetmyer, has had a very poor season.
“I won’t say it was a mistake,” Rathour said. Obviously, you could have retained only six. The management is pretty happy with the six that we have retained. Hetty is supposed to be that finisher, and unfortunately, he has had that kind of a season.
“He is a superb player. He has done that in the past, he’s done well in international cricket, league cricket or franchise cricket. This year, he hasn’t been able to finish the games. That was his role basically. People are allowed to have those kinds of seasons. I have worked enough in cricket to know that really good players also go through lean phases. Unfortunately, Hetty had a poor season this year, which will happen once in a while. If he had a good season – and we are sure that he is going to improve – I don’t think we have any issue with the finishers then.”
