IPL Pulse: Breaking down and breaking up
Good morning,
If you're in Kolkata, chances are that the evening served you rain, chai, and begun bhaja on cue... but cricket took the day off. KKR vs PBKS was washed out, the groundmen burning more calories in the storm than the players.
The IPL, though, doesn't wait around. Here's the latest edition of Cricbuzz Pulse, your two-minute scan of the IPL universe.
Last night in five lines
1. KKR won the toss and opted to bat first, even with all the rain around.
2. Eden Gardens dished out a green pitch once uh-gain.
3. And seeing all that, KKR handed a KKR cap to Navdeep Saini.
4. Xavier Bartlett reminded of all the Test cricket that Eden Gardens missed out on with a new-ball spell for the ages.
5. Only 3.4 overs in, rain arrived and never went away.
Oh, that happened
There was no Narine, no Varun Chakaravarthy for KKR. Varun was injured while taking a boundary catch (Abhishek Sharma's) in the last match whereas Narine was sick. This was KKR's first game without both in the Playing XI since Varun debuted for KKR in 2020!
Pulse awards
The oh-you're-still-here award goes to the grass on the Eden Gardens pitch.
The broken-up-but-still-checking-their-Instagram award goes to Shreyas Iyer, KKR's former title-winning captain, for looking right at home in the away dressing room in Kolkata.
The sigh-of-relief award goes to KKR for successfully averting another Rahane presser.
The held-the-line award and the unsung-heroes award goes to the Eden Gardens groundstaff, who stood firm on the covers as the wind tried its best to take the game away.
Talking point
SRH are unhappy. Two losses in three games would justify that on its own, but their frustration is with a string of decisions and moments they feel were stacked against them. The latest was when Avesh Khan, standing near the LSG dugout, struck the ball back into the playing area even before it had crossed the boundary ropes. This follows earlier discontent over Heinrich Klaasen's boundary catch dismissal by Phil Salt at Chinnaswamy and Abhishek Sharma's caught-out by Varun at Eden Gardens.
Who's saying what
Well, Rahane didn't say a lot (and KKR will definitely not mind that) but Shreyas Iyer used words like "blossomed" and "plethora" at the toss, which Kolkata's College-street public really appreciated. Sources close to Wanindu Hasaranga and within LSG have told Cricbuzz that they have "no update" on the leggie and it seems more likely by the minute that the franchise may move on from him.
Stat Snack
It was for the second year in a row that KKR-PBKS at Eden Gardens was washed out. Maybe, just maybe, it's Kolkata crying over letting Iyer go. You know which Iyer we are speaking about, come on.
What's the latest gossip?
There's at least one franchise already wondering if they overpaid for a big-name buy who is taking a little too long to look worth the cheque. And he's not bowling and he's not batting much either.
Tonight's watchlist
RR vs MI in Guwahati. With a 16-14 head-to-head, you know it's going to be a close match. Hardik Pandya, who was out with a throat infection last match, is expected to be back to lead.
Reckless prediction for tonight's match
For a change, it's going to be a full house in Guwahati.
