da pinnacle： Kolkata Knight Riders need a fresh approach to their batting after another defeat
da dobrowin： Abhishek Purohit in Hyderabad28-Sep-2011Where are Kolkata Knight Riders going wrong? They do not seem to beplaying particularly poorly yet today’s loss was their third on the trotafter a close come-from-behind win against Auckland. Their batsmen havescored more runs than the previous game on every occasion in thetournament without really imposing themselves on the opposition. Their bowlershas built pressure only for a costly over here and there to take the gameaway in the end. There are no glaring issues but the margin for error isminuscule in this compressed format and small errors get magnified.Jacques Kallis, Gautam Gambhir (Shreevats Goswami earlier) and ManojTiwary – with career strike-rates of 113.65, 121.18 and 117.67 – arebatsmen who like to take their time to get going, even in Twenty20s. Atthe moment, they come one after the other in the batting order. It leavesYusuf Pathan and Ryan ten Doeschate with too much to do.ten Doeschate, who strikes above 130, has clearly been under-used. Today,he came in at No.7 with the asking rate touching an improbable 15. He didshowcase his ability with a 16-ball 32 but that had no impact apart fromreducing the margin of defeat. How much would a similar innings havehelped Kolkata had it come earlier in the chase? Instead Shakib Al Hasan,who strikes at 105.96, was sent in at No.3.While Gambhir has the class and Kallis is the anchor of the line-up,Tiwary has struggled to accelerate in the middle stages against bowlingattacks of a standard slightly higher than those he faces in the IPL.There is a clear case for shuffling the batting order. If the KnightRiders feel that Yusuf’s raw power is required at the death, at least tenDoeschate’s calibre demands that he be moved a couple of places higher.Gambhir admitted that with the benefit of hindsight, he could have donethat.”You are always wiser after the event,” Gambhir said. “The way he washitting the ball, I could have sent him up the order. But we need someoneto finish games as well. It’s about the team. Wherever the support staffand the team management think he is going to contribute the maximum, weare going to use him at that number.”ten Doeschate also has 60 wickets with his medium-pace at an economy ratejust under eight but he hasn’t bowled a single delivery in thistournament. The Knight Riders have reasoned that the pitch in Hyderabadwas more conducive to spin but it was a Yusuf over in both losses in themain tournament that turned the momentum firmly against them. While Yusufis a useful bowler at times, there can be no harm in giving ten Doeschatea go as well, especially given that the second seamer has leaked runsthroughout.Gambhir is an extremely proud competitor and he knows that the KnightRiders sorely need a win with the losses having put them on the brink ofelimination. “When you lose, you haven’t done things right. Till the timeyou don’t win, you are not doing well. When I walk onto the field, it’sabout winning. It is not about playing good cricket. You must have heardthat saying, ‘you don’t need to think about the result, you need to thinkabout the process’. But for me, when you are playing competitive sport, itis about winning. People can say that we are not playing that badly, butwe are not crossing the line.”The Knight Riders run into familiar opposition in the Royal ChallengersBangalore next, but could do with a fresh approach which takes a breakfrom what is not broken, but has just not worked so far.