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Mood upbeat after two wins

The match against Delhi Daredevils will be a difficult assignment, writes John Buchanan

— Photo: Sushanta Patronobish

GETTING READY: Kolkata Knight Riders’ Salman Butt (right) and Tatenda Taibu will look to establish themselves in the Twenty20 format in the remaining games.

For the last two games, we have found ourselves back in the winner’s circle. I must say, while losing gives us the capacity to learn more about ourselves, there is nothing like a winning dressing room. The mood bubbles, the comments and jokes reverberate around the walls, the highlights of the match are relived, everybody enjoys the post-match replays on TV, and no one is really concerned about how tired they feel, injuries or parts of the performance that were not up to par.

A quick reflection on the game against Bangalore’s Royal Challengers showed that we again disappointed at the top of the order being two down for 25 after rain shortened the game to 16 overs and therefore the Power Play was limited to four overs. Again David Hussey showed himself to be one of the premier batsmen in this tournament. I was very pleased with the energy, the running, and innovation from Taibu, and Laxmi Shukla showed a glimpse of how dangerous he can be.

There was no doubt this was one of our best fielding displays with Brad Hodge, who missed out with the bat again, leading from the front. Taibu was the same, spreadeagling himself on many occasions to save runs, and these efforts helped uplift everyone in the field.

Opening combination

With Brad being called up for Australia duty, we will replace him at the top of the order with Salman Butt who I think may take another game or two to adjust to this format; plus he and Akash Chopra will be the sixth opening combination in eight games, not a formula for lending stability and consistency to a batting innings.

Against Deccan Chargers, the most obviously pleasing feature of our performance was the batting. After the early loss of Salman, Akash played a very important role in giving an increasingly confident and aggressive Sourav Ganguly all the initial support he needed. The Chargers had little choice but to attack from the outset, although this is the natural style of Gilchrist and Gibbs. Fortunately we were able to dismiss both through their own aggression inside the Power Play. And though runs were flowing, we picked up wickets to have the Chargers at four for 70, requiring 135 from the remaining 11 overs. Sharma and then Rao tried valiantly, but the task proved too big.

Shoaib has made progress since he has been here, but whether he can make sufficient progress for our next home game against Delhi, is still a question.

Delhi Daredevils have an imposing top order headed by Sehwag, Gambir, Dhawan and de Villiers. Support this powerful batting with McGrath, the talented Asif, one of the emerging allrounders in Maharoof and an exciting legspin prospect in Mishra.

It is no wonder that Delhi were one of the front running teams, and will be an extremely difficult assignment for the Knight Riders.

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