'Home team' KKR trump hosts RCB at Chinnaswamy, again

There will be people blasting your social media and WhatsApp group chats, telling you how Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) broke the streak of home wins in IPL 2024 by defeating Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the Chinnaswamy on Friday, April 29.

Don't listen to them. The only thing KKR broke was the fans' hopes to see some popcorn-worthy drama between Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli. Rest all, the seven-wicket win, the unused 3.1 overs, the Virat Kohli masterclass in a losing cause, and the Sunil Narine Player of the Match award - was usual business.

It was KKR's sixth straight win at the ground. The longest winning streak RCB have managed here in the last decade is three, that too in 2016. The head-to-head record between the teams now reads 8-4 in favor of KKR, making them the joint-highest winners with Mumbai Indians here.

For reasons good or bad, or perhaps it's the Gautam Gambhir obsession with beating RCB, KKR have always seemed better prepared to play in RCB's den.

Even on Friday, there was a lot of talk about Chinnaswamy seeing a 400-run showdown between two great batting sides in IPL 2024. But what we saw was a tired pitch with enough cracks to give bowlers a simple strategy - if you bowl fast, bowl slow; if you bowl spin, bowl slower.

Kohli was superb (and a tad lucky) in how he batted in the powerplay when Mitchell Starc offered him some pace, almost striking at 150-plus constantly. But once that was over, his strike rate dropped below 135.

Cameron Green tried to show some hurry after Faf du Plessis lost his wicket early again but was bowled by a Russell quicker one. Maxwell hobbled around, serving three catching opportunities before eventually edging one against Narine. Rajat Patidar and Anuj Rawat's entry points got wrong and it took some pushing from Dinesh Karthik and Kohli to take the score to a respectable but under-par number.

But RCB thought otherwise.

"It was a strange one," du Plessis said after the match. "We felt that the wicket was two-paced in the first innings. We thought it was a decent score but a little dew came in. Probably a little under par but looking at the first innings, we played well but didn't finish the innings. Virat was struggling to get going towards the end as the pitch got more difficult to bat on."

Kohli didn't struggle only because the wicket was two-paced but also because KKR bowled accordingly, with Andre Russell, Harshit Rana and even Starc relentlessly trying to hit the cracks in the surface making the ball stick. They were quick to understand that pace-on wasn't the way to go.

"Dre Russ probably bowled 80% of his balls cutters. We took some learnings from that and he was the best bowler of the evening," Faf said.

The same strategy was also mentioned in the completely public and free-to-read pre-match pitch report. It's almost on obvious lines that due to the extensive Women's Premier League (WPL) games, the Chinnaswawmy pitch has taken a beating. KKR arrived here only a couple of days ago, RCB's management has been here studying the pitch for months now.

How could they, then, bowl less than half of the cutters that KKR did? It looked like a different pitch to bat on when Sunil Narine and Phil Salt smashed 85 in the powerplay, by hitting most of their shots through the line. But that's because Mohammed Siraj and Alzarri Joseph let them with their pace-on deliveries.

Most of RCB's slower ones in the game came from Vijaykumar Vyshak, the Karnataka-born Impact Sub who was brought in for just that task.

But because RCB didn't sign a finger spinner or a leg-spinner who could bat a bit in the auction, Vyshak's brilliant outing seemed like a lone fight, as Siraj, Joseph, and Yash Dayal all conceded a lot more than 10 runs per over. In comparison, Starc was the only one with an economy rate of 11.8 for KKR.

"Ideally you want someone who can spin the ball both ways but with the set-up of our team tonight, we didn't have that option," du Plessis said.

RCB's squad, full of pace-hitters and a big-money fast-bowling all-rounder in Green, increasingly looks designed for playing on green-tops when their home is offering next to nothing for guys who are just quick and can swing the ball.

KKR, on the other hand, thanks to the variety both their pacers and spinners offer, are slowly portraying themselves as the most adaptable in IPL 2024.

KKR didn't just overpower RCB with the ball

Seeing RCB's struggles against the old ball, KKR's strategy to go all-out in the powerplay worked wonders. When you see Narine come out in the powerplay, your first instinct isn't to bowl a cutter. And the way he tackled short ballsalls - certainly much better than the previous seasons - set the tone for his team.

RCB just didn't adapt to his tornado-like effect. Du Plessis kept his three quicks on for the entirety of the powerplay. Apart from not learning the slower-ones lesson from KKR, his team also chose to not see the three-run over Anukul Roy bowled in the first powerplay, completely stopping RCB's fledgling momentum.

KKR's adaptability was also clear in how number three batter Venkatesh Iyer calmly waited for short balls and pace-on deliveries to play his big shots until he got set and eventually ended with a brilliant half-century. Thanks to him, even his skipper Shreyas Iyer had a net out and got the chance to finish the game too.

With all the talk and controversy about the Eden pitch not being suited to KKR's skills in IPL 2023, the two-time champions seemed to have gathered a group of T20 chamaeleons who can change shape and turn on different skill sets according to different pitches across the country. No away win might truly qualify as an away win for them this season. And that's especially true for Chinnaswamy.