KKR bowed out of the tournament but not before putting up a tremendous fight to chase down 210. After LSG broke all sorts of records in their wicketless innings of 210 runs, KKR had a shaky start, but a super cameo late in the innings from Rinku Singh almost took them over the line. LSG are now the second team to qualify for playoffs, and KKR become the third team to be eliminated. Here, we look at some key moments from match 66 of the 2022 IPL.
Narine – The wizard
In an innings where all his teammates went for at least 8.5 runs per over, Sunil Narine conceded just 27 runs off his four overs at 6.75 RPO. It was his control over his length that stood out throughout that innings. Narine didn’t bowl a single full-length ball to KL Rahul. A majority of his balls were on the good length and targeted around the off and middle stumps.
Narine signing off with the best economy rate from his team isn’t a rare thing. In fact, he has the best economy rate of any bowler in this year’s IPL (5.48). Only four bowlers have a better economy rate than Narine’s 6.63 RPO in the history of IPL.
Mohsin Khan – The revelation
Mohsin Khan has perhaps been the find of the tournament, not just for LSG. The tall left-arm bowler from Uttar Pradesh has taken everyone’s notice through his fast and accurate bowling. After already impressing a lot over the last seven games, Khan was once again phenomenal against KKR.
Apart from Khan, only one LG bowler had an economy rate of less than 11.25 RPO (Bishnoi – 8.5 RPO), but Khan, carrying his confidence from his previous matches, went at just 5.0 RPO. He also picked up key wickets of both the openers to rock KKR early. The key to Khan’s bowling has been his mixing of line and lengths, along with his pace, which can go right into the 150 KPH zone. He has had an outstanding debut season, and he’ll be a vital cog in the LSG bowling attack in the playoffs.
KL Rahul’s starting struggles
KL Rahul, a batter who has the ability to take on pacers and spinners from the word go, has adopted a batting style of playing it safe in the initial overs and cover-up for the lower strike rate later in the innings. This year, he has struck 98.9 in the Powerplay with a dot ball percentage of 49.7%, and it wasn’t any different against KKR.
After the end of the Powerplay, Rahul was on 18 off 18 balls, striking exactly at 100, with 50% of his balls being dot balls. Rahul’s innings can be divided into two halves. In the first half, he scored 28 runs off 28 balls with a strike rate of 100. In the second, he scored 40 runs off 23 balls at 173.9.
Although LSG ended up winning the match, KKR got within a touching distance of the massive target. With all 10 wickets in hand, there was a case for Rahul to start scoring more freely a bit early. Despite playing 48 balls and remaining unbeaten, his strike rate at the end of the innings was just 133.33. LSG might have won the game, but if their best and most talented batter plays within himself, they might find themselves a few runs short in the crunch matches despite resources at their disposal.