IPL 2023:Inconsistent KKR hope for Eden miracle against LSG

 Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) host Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in what will be their final game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at the Eden Gardens on Saturday. KKR are currently in seventh place in the points table with six wins and seven losses, while LSG is third with seven wins and five losses.

So, merely a win will not suffice for the Knights. They will have to beat Lucknow by a significant margin and also hope that other results go in their favour, needing Punjab Kings (vs Rajasthan Royals), Gujarat Titans (vs Royal Challengers Bangalore) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (Mumbai Indians) to win their respective matches.

KKR have also been unable to take advantage of the home conditions with an apparent lack of communication between the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and the franchise.Their captain Nitish Rana has rued the lack of home advantage, but the Eden Gardens pitch curator Sujan Mukherjee has made it clear that he is not obligated to provide pitches that the home team wants.

KKR head coach Chandrakant Pandit, speaking on the eve of the match, shed some light on the matter and said, “Home advantage is a bit of a misunderstood concept. In my experience, I have seen teams failing to win games despite having favourable conditions. It is all about how to win games. Yes, we are playing at home, but despite having this home advantage, we could not win enough games, which was unfortunate.

“But in the IPL, many other teams have also failed to take the home advantage. However, we should have taken the advantage of playing at home,” he explained. “As far as pitches are concerned, they have changed over time. Nobody can give a guarantee on it, and it happens sometimes,

Where KKR have also faltered is not being able to crack the code of a winning combination, thereby suffering seven defeats. Out of those seven, four losses were at the Eden Gardens.The only shining lights in this season have been the performances of Rinku Singh and Varun Chakravarthy. It is probably due to the duo that KKR have kept their campaign alive, albeit mathematically.

Pandit believes their team is focused on winning the game rather than looking at the table. “We won our last game, and momentum is with us, and we want to finish on a good note and make it to the playoffs by winning the game,” he said.

Reflecting on the season, Pandit said, “The tournament was very tough, and despite whatever our team has done, we could have done much better. We still want to do much better.