D’Arcy put in a spin

D’Arcy Short took the Big Bash League by storm last Australian summer. Having played his formative cricket in Western Australia, he is at home on quick and bouncy surfaces. However, on the slower pitches in India, the left-hander seems like a duck out of water. On Wednesday at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium, apart from the lack of pace, Short seemed largely clueless about the variations employed by wrist spinners Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav, who opened the bowling for the Kolkata Knight Riders.

His opening partner, Ajinkya Rahane has had his own share of problems trying to force the pace against spin and Dinesh Karthik read the situation expertly, employing spin for seven of the first eight overs. Rajasthan Royals managed just nine runs off the first three overs, all singles. But while Rahane has the expertise and experience in these conditions to make up for the slow start, to an extent, Short is still trying to come to terms with the alien atmosphere. At one stage, he had 18 off 28 balls, putting a lot of pressure on his batting partners.

He had a strike rate of over 160 against pace and under 130 against spin, and for a player hailing from spin-unfriendly Australia, the statistic tells its own tale. For the record, Short scored 26 in 15 deliveries off pace and just 18 in 28 balls of spin. It was only when the quicker bowlers arrived that his strike rate breached the 100 mark. But every team that Short faces from now on will try to tie him down with spin.

Banker loosens the purse strings

As many as 14 of the 20 overs in the Royals innings were bowled by spinners, and while most of them — even part-timer Nitish Rana — went for under a run a ball, the fact that they managed to reach 160 owed much to largesse from an unlikely source.

Sunil Narine’s four overs could be banked upon by KKR, with his accuracy and variations flummoxing the best of batsmen. But today, after a slow start, Rahane decided he had no option but to go after the mystery spinner when he came into the attack. The first ball was swept over square-leg, the Royals skipper dancing down the wicket to hit the next length ball past mid-off. It prompted Narine to pitch the next two short and they were identically dispatched through the off-side. It is not often that Narine is hit for four consecutive boundaries, and he never recovered, conceding 48 runs in his four overs without taking a wicket.

Contrast this with the control Chawla and Kuldeep displayed, giving only 18 and 23 runs in their four overs. Even Rana conceded 11 in his two overs. So Narine profligacy did not cost his team. Royals’ spin attack consisted off Krishnappa Gowtham and Shreyas Gopal, and they were not nearly as effective, even though the former got two wickets. They may need to look at playing Ish Sodhi, who is consistently ranked among the best T20 bowlers.

Mavi rises to the challenge

KKR had punted big on India’s U-19 stars, acquiring Shubman Gill, Shubham Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti at the auction. With Nagarkoti ruled out due to injury, there were doubts about how much game time the other two would get. Though Gill has struggled in the limited opportunities he has got, Mavi has shown there is something about him. He disturbed Gautam Gambhir’s woodwork in the previous match and impressed Karthik enough for him to assign the youngster the last over of the innings.

Faced with the daunting prospect of bowling to Jos Buttler, the younster gave only nine runs, despite three wides when Karthik asked him to bowl wide of off-stump. Mavi even had the gumption of bouncing the England star, beating him for pace. There was not a single boundary hit in the 20th over, a big compliment for the upcoming pacer.

He had already beaten the impressive Sanju Samson on his favourite pull shot, inducing a top edge to be caught well inside the boundary. Mavi has now given another option to the team management when it comes to death bowling.

Visitors cruise

With KKR at 15/0 after three overs chasing 161, the Royals had things relatively under control. Chris Lynn had already been dismissed and some impetus was required. Sunil Narine, opening the batting hit three boundaries off a Dhawal Kulkarni over and the visitors never looked back. Robin Uthappa hit three more in the next over bowled by Jaydev Unadkat. There was no bowler that could put on the brakes on the Knights.

Narine was run out after adding 69 runs for the second wicket, but Uthappa was joined by Rana, who continued his good form with a 27-ball 35 and later Karthik came in to apply the finishing touches.