Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra has shared that some of Eoin Morgan’s tactical decisions have left him dumbfounded. Notably, he is the captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
However, KKR set a competitive total of 172 runs for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Sunday’s IPL 2021 encounter. They were on the verge of a victory when the MS Dhoni-led side required 26 runs off the last two overs with two new batsmen in the middle but they failed to win. While reviewing the match in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra took a jibe and said that his faltering win predictions are better than Morgan’s tactical calls.
He said: “Eoin Morgan – captain, how do you do this? Even my predictions are not as bad as his strategic decisions. I have got no idea why he takes such decisions. When KKR reached 171, we all thought that it could be a winning total because you have two good spinners and decent fast bowling, you will be fine. Interestingly enough, you open with Nitish Rana at times and here when Faf and Ruturaj are playing and this is the second innings, you bring the spinner in the fourth over.”
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However, the KKR seamers had a good start as they conceded just 18 runs in the first three overs. But Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad smashed 24 runs in the next two overs bowled by Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine as well.
Aakash Chopra, however, lashed out at Eoin Morgan for not giving the penultimate over to Sunil Narine. He elaborated: “Varun Chakravarthy comes to bowl the 18th over, gives only five runs and dismisses Dhoni. 26 runs were left in two overs, you had one over from Narine and one over from Prasidh Krishna. Two left-handers were there, both had just come, why will you not go to Sunil Narine, honestly tell me.”
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However, Ravindra Jadeja smashed Prasidh Krishna all over the ground in the 19th over and made the equation to four runs needed from the last over. Although Narine did his best, Deepak Chahar took a single to take CSK to the finish line.
“When you are defending, the 19th over is far more important than the 20th over, you have to go to your best bowler there. You had seen in the 18th over that spin was working, Suresh Raina also got run out in that over, so you had got a double-wicket over but you don’t make Narine bowl, it defies logic,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
