Can KKR’s superior middle-overs bowling help them out-Klaasen SRH?

When Head and Abhishek fired, SRH outplayed the opposition in the first six but for KKR even when Salt and Narine fell early, the batting still possessed power hitters like Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer… Mitchell Starc. For SRH if the dynamic opening duo falls early the responsibility to score big completely falls on Henrich Klassen.

However, both teams’ bowling has been the weaker department. Kolkata has been conceding runs at 9.24 RPO which is the sixth worst while Hyderabad is lingering at second-last on the table conceding 9.87 RPO.

Earlier in the tournament KKR conceded the highest chase of 262 runs against Punjab Kings at Eden Gardens. Punjab got to the total losing just two wickets and 10 balls to spare. Against Rajasthan Royals, they couldn’t defend 223 runs.

Though KKR had the best spin attack in the tournament Mitchell Starc’s poor form and lack of an experienced Indian seamer proved costly in the first half of the tournament. It was only after the introduction of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy in the middle overs that things would stabilize and Shreyas Iyer would gain some control of the games.

Against Mumbai Indians, though SRH piled up a massive 277, Hardik Pandya’s side was in the game for the majority of the chase. Thanks to lack of dew and pitch slowing down on the night SRH got out of jail. It was a similar tale against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Chinnaswamy. Despite scoring 287 runs which is the highest total in all T20s the bowling unit never looked comfortable.

While KKR’s strength has been spin it has been the other way around for SRH. The pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Cummins and Jaydev Unadkat did their job but the side lacked a world-class spinner in the middle overs. Mayank Markande was put to the sword in the first half of the tournament and lost his spot. With Wanindu Hasaranga injured and no other Indian specialist spinner, Cummins had to use all-rounder Shabaz Ahmed as the first-choice spinner in games which gave average results. Until Ahmed sparkled in the eliminator. In the tail-end, Sri Lankan wrist spinner Vijaykanth Viyaskanth was given an opportunity but after the bashing he took against KKR in Qualifier 1 in Ahmedabad, he too was dropped for the Eliminator against Rajasthan Royals on Friday.

SRH Head Coach Daniel Vettori had a different take on the way the bowlers need to be looked at in the modern game. “It is just a different world. You have to change your perspective on what is a good performance rather than looking at 8-8.50. As long as your economy stays under the game economy you have done an exceptional job,” he would say.

“When you post big scores you expect teams to come hard and that is what we have seen so far. All the 200-run scores that teams are prepared to come hard and there is an understanding that the wickets are good, we just have to navigate our way through that.” Vettori would reason behind bowlers going for plenty. However, irrespective of all the bowling flaws both SRH and KKR have made it to the final.