IPL 2020: 3 mistakes committed by KKR against MI

Mumbai Indians (MI) have opened their account in IPL 2020 with a convincing victory against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The game at Abu Dhabi saw a brilliant knock from MI’s skipper Rohit Sharma and KKR bowlers looked helpless in front of him. Even after not converting the perfect start into a massive finish, the defending champions scored 195 in their quota of 20 overs.

KKR had a hope of chasing the massive total down because of their big hitters, but when they came to bat, there were too many runs to score for them. Dinesh Karthik and Nitish Rana played a cameo each, but the target of 196 was out of KKR’s reach against the skilled and experienced bowling attack of Mumbai. KKR made several mistakes in their first encounter of IPL 2020, but a few of them were extremely expensive for them.

Here are the 3 mistakes committed by KKR against MI that led them to a defeat in their first match of the season:

1. Sending Andre Russell too low

Andre Russell is regarded as one of the most dangerous batsmen in the shortest form of the game. Sending him at 4 would have been a perfect option as he could have dominated the MI bowlers. When he walked in, the required rate was 14.28 and MI had enough overs remaining of their death bowlers. KKR missed the trick by not sending their most destructive batsman a bit early in the batting order.

2. Fast bowlers not bowling up to the expectations

KKR bought Pat Cummins for a whopping 15.5 crores in the auction, making him the most expensive player of the auction. With him, their pace bowling attack looked one of the best as it had decent Indian fast bowler and an all-rounder like Russell. However, the fast bowlers kept on bowling short balls to MI batsmen throughout the innings. If their pace battery would have bowled with a better plan, they could have been their biggest strength in the game.

3. Leaving a lot of runs for the finishers

With Eoin Morgan and Andre Russell, KKR had one of the best finishers in the tournament. However, in a high scoring game like this, their top-order was expected to score some fast runs in the initial overs. Their run-rate in the first ten overs was too low as they scored a mere 71 runs.

With too much to get in limited balls against one of the most skilled death bowling units, the target went out of their reach. With a better-paced chase in the initial stage, KKR could have reached much closer to the target.