The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) suffered a loss in IPL 2022 as the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated them by three wickets in a nail-biting thriller on Wednesday. And, former India opener Wasim Jaffer added that KKR captain Shreyas Iyer may have missed a trick by not using their part-time spinner Nitish Rana during the match as well.
While speaking on ESPNcricinfo, Wasim Jaffer stated that Varun Chakravarthy wasn’t comfortable while bowling to left-handers in the game. He feels Shreyas Iyer could have brought in Nitish Rana to bowl when there were two left-handers (Sherfane Rutherford and Shahbaz Ahmed) in the middle.
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Wasim Jaffer explained: “I was surprised that Shreyas Iyer did not bowl Nitish Rana when there were two left-handers there and Chakravarthy was clearly struggling against them. One or two overs from Rana would have meant that Russell wouldn’t have had to bowl. He could have bowled Venkatesh Iyer earlier if Russell was struggling. Things could have been a little bit different if he had saved Chakravathy’s over there and used it for right-handers.”
The former cricketer, however, applauded KKR pacers Umesh Yadav and Trent Boult for their stunning spells in the powerplay. He claimed that Kolkata would have had a great chance at defending the target if Chakravarthy was in his form. Notably, RCB chased down the total in the final over with three wickets and four balls in hand as well.KKR will next play on Friday against Punjab Kings in their third league match as well.
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“Umesh Yadav and Tim Southee made a match out of it by getting RCB 17/3 in the powerplay. KKR would have had a better chance if Chakravarthy had bowled better. It feels like Varun Chakravarthy struggles a bit bowling to the left-handers. He started bowling from around the stumps and then came over the wicket, but his length was on the shorter side. It helped the batters to pull him. He was probably scared to throw the ball in the air or in front of the batters. Had he gone for 20-25 runs or had taken a wicket at that stage, it would have been interesting,” Wasim Jaffer concluded.
