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It’s perhaps not just coincidence that Punjab Kings’ (PBKS) innings after being asked to bat in Friday’s IPL game at the Wankhede mirrored that of Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) two evenings earlier. The two teams with game-changing power-hitters and wearing “intent” on their sleeves refused to buckle down even when that term appeared a touch misplaced at key phases of their innings.
Purely in terms of runs, PBKS had a fruitful powerplay on a Wankhede deck offering bounce for the bowlers but little else. A team will take 62 runs from the first six overs in any IPL game any given day on any track. But Punjab had also lost three wickets in the process. Probably reason enough to hold back for a bit, steady the rocking boat and then sail on? Not how some of them think any more.
So Liam Livingstone, set on 19, skied one to long-off a couple of overs later despite the bowler being Umesh Yadav, the most lethal KKR pacer this season who was brought back into the attack by captain Shreyas Iyer. The young Raj Bawa was an anomaly in a batting line-up where M Shahrukh Khan too was dismissed going for a big shot five balls into his innings despite seeing half of his side back in the dugout for 84 in the 10th over. Even Kagiso Rabada came out swinging, and to PBKS’s good fortune, connected a few to give some respectability to their total. Ironically, Odean Smith—their match-winner from the season-opening victory—was stranded as PBKS were bowled out in the 19th over.
So were KKR against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the DY Patil Stadium on Wednesday. Much like Punjab, they had lost half their side around the halfway mark in setting up a total. Yet, they kept going—Sheldon Jackson was bowled playing an expansive drive, Sam Billings holed out to long-on, Andre Russell caught behind reaching out for a ferocious cut. KKR were packed off for 128.
Their chase on Friday wasn’t too different. After losing their skipper to an untimely slog that reduced them to 51/4 in 7 overs chasing 138, KKR needed 87 at an asking rate of over 6.5 an over. Conventional thinking would see a team take a more cautious route at that stage: rotate the strike and get the odd boundary to take the game deep; use the MS Dhoni template. That doesn’t seem to have found a place in KKR’s book. After a couple of overs of pushing and prodding, Russell decided it was time to cut loose, no matter what was to come (or not) after him. Result? KKR got home with 33 balls to spare.
It’s the kind of no-holds-barred approach that sides like KKR and PK are not shying away from in this IPL. The think-tank doesn’t mind batters going “a little bit too hard”, as KKR head coach Brendon McCullum put it, in pursuit of 180-200 and folding up for 130, rather than crawling towards 150-160. The Sunrisers Hyderabad, in contrast, reacted differently when faced with a similar situation in their opener against Rajasthan Royals, scrambling to 149/7 after being 37/5 chasing 211.
“I actually loved the intent, to be honest,” McCullum said after his team’s three-wicket loss to RCB in their second game. “You back the fact that you played a long batting line-up. You don’t anticipate being bowled out. But I want us to continue to keep that intent because that served us so well last year. The way we set our teams up at the auction, and the players we picked, it suits them as well.”
Perhaps the dew factor too plays a role in these teams eyeing those extra 15-20 runs while planning a target. Bhanuka Rajapaksa, the southpaw who lay down the marker for PBKS’ “intent” with a 9-ball 31 at No 3 on Friday, said the idea was to “put on a big score on the board” to counter the power that the KKR batting unit presents. “Unfortunately we lost a couple of wickets in the middle overs,” the Sri Lankan added in the post-match press conference.
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