After Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), head coach Abhishek Nayar said that the team missed their spinner Varun Chakravarthy and his combination with Sunil Narine, as Varun missed out due to a niggle. A Virat Kohli chase masterclass helped RCB reach the target with ease.
Speaking during the post-match presser, Nayar said, “The pitch was good through and through, anytime there is a bit of rain, the first few overs, you expect the ball to swing and seam a bit, which happened, but I still felt we got enough runs on the board, because midway when we had that discussion, we felt anywhere between 180-200 would be a good score.”
“The Varun Chakravarthy part, we have done really well with the Sunny (Narine) and Varun combo, it is unfortunate that we have missed him a lot this season, it is the second time around where he has got a fracture, which is unfortunate for him, but you will always miss a Varun Chakraborty, we know the quality of Sunny and Varun bowling together, so it’s hard to replace a Varun,” he further added.
READ HERE: Shubman Gill Breaks Silence On ODI Futures Of Rohit Sharma And Virat Kohli
Nayar also said that the team’s scoring was fine on the Raipur surface, but dropping Virat Kohli’s catch early in his innings cost KKR as well.
“We all know that if you leave Virat Kohli’s catch, it will be difficult, especially when he is chasing, so there are a lot of things that could have been better. But when you are playing good cricket with a team like this, and Virat Kohli and (Devdutt) Padikkal are in good form, and you want to take their catches in that time, so it is unfortunate, in the game, these things happen, Virat’s catch was very sharp, he was very close, and you expect Vaibhav to take the catch, but it is one of those things, you reflect on it, and you say that if I had taken the catches, it could have been different,” he again shared.
He also backed pacer Vaibhav Arora’s spell of 0/48 in four overs, which started with him getting hit for four fours by Virat Kohli in the second over, stating that they felt he could do the job and dismiss Virat. In 11 matches, Vaibhav has taken 11 wickets at an average of 35.45, with best figures of 2/24.
“In the last few matches, he made a very good comeback. The defensive bowler you need in T20s, Vaibhav, is that kind of player. He has experience, he has played a lot in IPL, and you want him to bowl against Virat Kohli, we thought at that time that Vaibhav could do that for us,” he said.
He also praised Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s knock, saying that he batted well in tough overs when the ball was nipping around and there was help for pace bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood. In 11 matches, Raghuvanshi has scored 340 runs in 11 matches at an average of 34.00, with a strike rate of 139.34, including four fifties as well.
“I think today I was very impressed with the way he batted, because the ball was really nipping around initially, with all the rain around, there was a lot of help, Hazlewood and Bhuvi obviously world class bowlers, hitting the length, but I felt he was tactically very smart and astute, played square of the wicket, used the angles really well, picked his bowlers,” he said.
“I think he paced his innings really well, he at any point did not really feel that he was uncomfortable, he belonged there, and that was something that really stood out for me, because there were bigger boundaries, you compare both the teams, we hit more sixes than them, which is very rarely something you see with RCB, with the amount of power they have,” he concluded.
