Kolkata Knight Riders journey in IPL 2021 till, has been nothing short of a roller-coaster ride. The team has witnessed some fascinating wins and some heart breaking losses.
The first leg of season:
The first leg of this season has not been a sweet journey for the Knight Riders. The team only won two matches out of seven and faced five terrible losses.
KKR started their journey with a win against SRH. The fans hoped for something that has been missing for a while-consistency…But that unfortunately is not what the team has managed to deliver in the first leg.
In their second match against Mumbai Indians. KKR were chasing an achievable target of 153 runs. Knight riders bowlers had done a great job. Andre Russell had an incredible figures of 5/15, Pat cummins 2/24 and Shakib al hasan 1/23 these bowlers made sure that Mumbai shouldn’t get to a huge total.
The KKR openers had a great start with 72 run opening Nitesh Rana (57) and Shubman Gill (33), but barring these two openers. The middle order of team crashed and Mumbai Indians won the match by 10 runs.
In their next match against RCB, Knight Riders bowlers managed to dismiss the dangerous Virat kohli and very talented devdatt padikkal. But RCBS middle order two batsmen (Glenn Maxwell 78 and Ab de Villars 76) just tore the bowling side of KKR and set a huge target of 204 runs.
The KKR batsman were struggling to chase the huge target and ended up 166/8.Andre Russell ended up being the top scoring batsman for the team with 31 runs scored in 20 Balls
After than KKR has lost three more matches and just one win. A total of 4 losses in a row that pushed them down last place on the points table.
Kolkata team in the first leg was a combination of underperforming of well experienced players and some wrong strategies along with what some might call strange selection.
The second leg of season:
In the second phase KKR needed to win all their remaining matches to have some chance of making the playoffs.
KKR had a great start with a win against RCB. The KKR spinner Varun Chakravarthy was in top form. Varun claimed three wickets in four overs and conceded only four runs. Russell also took three dismissals and ferguson bagged two wickets.
Knight Riders openers carried the game single handedly to the finishing line. Gill 48 runs off 34 balls and Iyer scoring 41 off 27 balls. The young players of KKR have displayed good performance and some players changes are paying off. After that KKR won five matches and lost only against Chennai Super Kings. KKR lost the match in the last ball.
In their previous match against Rajasthan Royals, KKR won the match by 86 runs. Kolkata batters set a highest target of 172 runs at Sharjah in this IPL. The openers put a steady opening partnership, Gill scored a brilliant half century off 42 balls. The middle order also made sure to set a good total.
Rajasthan lost their four wickets in the power play overs for just 13 runs on the score board. Pacer Shivam Mavi claimed 4 wicket haul and crushed the batters with his intense pace. And ferguson also took three wickets and RR eventually ended up for 85 runs.
This led KKR to move above at 4th position in points table. The team has qualified for playoffs and there seems to be a chance for Kolkata to win the third IPL season after 6 years.