IPL 2025 ka ek aur thrilling match tha, lekin Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) ke run chase ne fans ko confuse kar diya – aur former Australia captain Aaron Finch ko toh bilkul hi samajh nahi aaya. Gujarat Titans (GT) ke khilaf 199 ka target tha, lekin KKR ka approach itna defensive tha ki sabko shock lag gaya, especially jab unke paas 9 pure batters the.
“They had nine batters in their team. That automatically tells me they are going to be ultra aggressive at the start… For me, that was just a really poor calculation of how to go about a run chase of 200,”
– Aaron Finch on ESPNcricinfo’s Timed Out
Finch ne clearly bola ki jab aapke paas itne saare batters ho, toh rebuild karne ka kya logic? Venkatesh Iyer, jo ₹23.75 crore mein auction se aaye, unka performance tha sirf 14 runs off 19 balls. Jab wo out hue, KKR ka score tha 84/3 in 11.3 overs, aur required run rate cross kar chuka tha 13+.
“The game was over after ten [overs], wasn’t it? They just let the required run rate get so far out of hand. Very, very strange innings.”
KKR ka middle phase, 6th to 10th over tak, sirf 68/2 tha – matlab sirf tick-tick karte rahe. Aggression naam ki cheez hi nahi dikhi, jabki batting depth thi itni zyada ki Angkrish Raghuvanshi no.9 pe aaye.
“They went out with the attitude not to lose by 100 runs… That was a horrible batting display.”
KKR ki innings ki shuruaat bhi decent nahi thi. Rahmanullah Gurbaz opening mein aaye Quinton de Kock ki jagah, lekin Mohammed Siraj ne unhe pehli over mein hi LBW kar diya. Sunil Narine ne 17 off 13 balls banaye aur chal diye. Only highlight thi Ajinkya Rahane, jinhone 50 off 36 balls ki fighting innings kheli.
By the time Rinku Singh aur Andre Russell aaye, match ka pressure itna badh chuka tha ki comeback mushkil ho gaya. Raghuvanshi ne end mein ek explosive cameo diya – 27* off 13 balls – lekin match already out of hands tha.
Ye KKR ki 8 matches mein 5th loss thi, aur ab unka playoff berth bhi doubt mein lag raha hai.
Toh sawaal yeh hai – 9 batters hone ke bawajood itna passive game plan kyu? Kya KKR ne overthink kiya ya confidence ki kami thi? Ek baat toh clear hai – Aaron Finch ko toh ye innings bilkul bhi hazam nahi hui!
