Andre Russell was dismissed on a no ball against KXIP. (Source: IPL)Kings XI Punjab coach Mike Hesson rued the costly mistake on the field that gave a lucky break to Kolkata Knight Riders allrounder Andre Russell in the IPL match on Wednesday. The Jamaican was batting on 3 in 5 balls when he was cleaned up by Mohammed Shami. But KXIP had placed three fielders in the inner circle instead of mandatory four fielders, which led the umpire to adjudge it as a no ball. Russell went on to smash 45 runs more in the next 12 balls to take KKR’s total to 218/4 in 20 overs.
After losing the match by 28 runs, Hesson said that the incident was the “game changer”. “It’s a fine line when you’re bowling to Andre Russell. He’s a game changer,” he said at the press conference. “The game changed in the 17th over. Obviously, we had a plan for Russell that we executed well, but we weren’t quite alert enough in the field, and that’s where the game changed.”
“We had that little bit of jubilation and then things turned pretty quickly (with the no ball) and we weren’t quite able to turn the last few overs for 12 or 14 runs. Instead, we ended up giving away 22 or 24 runs, and it probably changed the game,” he added.
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Speaking on the decision to bring on debutant Varun Chakravarthy to bowl the second over in the match, Hesson said that they wanted to target Chris Lynn. The Rs 8.4 crore buy was smashed for three sixes and a four by Sunil Narine and gave away 25 runs in the over.
“It wasn’t so much Narine. Lynn was on strike at the start of that second over. That was the match-up we were looking for. And then Narine came on strike and you know he was able to take a toll,” he said.
Hesson went on to praise Chakravarthy for bowling better in the next couple of overs. “The way he came back in the second and third over was excellent. And it will give him and us a lot of confidence. You know, playing your first game in front of a crowd like this is difficult. Narine’s obviously going to hit you from ball one. I think he will learn to settle down a bit quicker. But I’m still very pleased the way how he came back,” he said.
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On being questioned on the form of the frontline opening pair Chris Gayle and KL Rahul, who were both dismissed within the first five overs with 37 runs on the board, Hesson said: “The first two games, we haven’t got a huge amount of runs from the top, but we’ve got runs from the top six. Mayank Agarwal, Sarfaraz (Khan) got runs in the last game. Gayle, Mandeep has played a couple of cameos and obviously, David Miller’s come in and played a role.”
KXIP made four changes from the team that defeated Rajasthan Royals in their opening game. Explaining the reason for the swaps, Hesson said: “Nicholas Pooran was injured so that’s a straight swap since David Miller’s a big player for us. And then on that surface, we felt that someone who can bowl back-of-a-length like Hardus Viljoen instead of Sam Curran was the way to go. And Hardus bowled really nicely, so those were two big changes.”
Want to hold on to my form: Rana
KKR batsman Nitish Rana, who earned the Orange Cap, after smashing 63 runs in 34 balls against KXIP, said he wants to hold on to his form throughout the season. “I haven’t thought too far ahead. But for the last couple of seasons, I start well but my form fizzles out towards the later half of the tournament,” the left-handed batsman said.
“So this time around, I want to work on this. I want to continue the kind of form I have started in till the end of the tournament,” he added.
Kolkata Knight Riders’ Nitish Rana gets the Orange Cap. (Source: IPL)Rana, who had a poor run in the domestic season, scoring just 147 runs in 10 matches at Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 and 191 runs from six games in Ranji, spent some time at Mumbai-based KKR Academy along with Abhishek Nayar and skipper Dinesh Karthik.
“I did not work on batting as such but I worked on the mental toughness. KKR academy was quite helpful in that sense because I got one-on-one time with Abhishek bhaiya and DK bhaiya. They helped me clear self doubts. Now, I feel, I’ve become a better player,” he said.
Explaining his strategy in the match, he further added: “That’s the sign of a good team. My plan was clear — to hit a loose ball and then, let DK (Dinesh Karthik) or (Andre) Russell take over for the last four-five overs.”
“I was just trying to build my innings. I was taking it ball by ball at the start and then when I thought I could charge, I did that. It doesn’t matter for me who the bowler is. My game plan was simple. I thought that was the time to attack and I did. That was the plan for the two overs — of Ashiwn and South African pacer (Hardus Viljoen),” he said.
The 25-year-old praised Andre Russell for his explosive innings and said the extra 20-25 runs made the difference. “Having 218/4 definitely worked in our favour, how Russell got a lifeline and that probably gave us those 20-25 runs extra. But even if we had 180 or 200, we would have fought this hard. It wasn’t very easy (to chase) because the ball started seaming in the second innings,” he said.
