New Delhi [India], April 22 (ANI): Former Australia skipper Aaron Finch took a dig at Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) left-hand batter Venkatesh Iyer for his lack of intent during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 clash against Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Eden Gardens on Monday.
Venkatesh came out to bat at number four in the sixth over when the Knight Riders’ score was 43 for the loss of two wickets. The southpaw struggled against the spinners and was sent back to the pavilion after scoring just 14 runs off 19 balls.
Speaking on ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out about the 30-year-old’s performance, Finch said, “You need to have an intent to take it (spin) down. You can’t hit a six or a boundary if you’re not trying to, if your first instinct is to just knock it into the leg side and run one. Then you’re on a hiding to nothing and it was just mesmerising, the lack of intent,” Finch said on ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out.
The defending champions, KKR, went with nine batters in the 39th encounter of the ongoing cash-rich league but were unable to chase down the target of 199 runs at their home ground.
Speaking on Kolkata’s batting, the former World Cup-winner noted, “They had nine batters in their team,” Finch said. “That automatically tells me they are going to be ultra aggressive at the start, try to get up to or ahead of the [required] run rate, so that when the wicket deteriorates, there’s room for error. For me, that was just a poor calculation of how to go about a run chase of 200. There are nine batters, you don’t need to rebuild anything.”
“The game was over after ten [overs], wasn’t it? They just let the required run rate get so far out of hand. It was so strange to watch them just trying to knock it around. Very, very strange innings. They went out with the attitude not to lose by 100 runs. It was almost like, ‘You know what, let’s get 160, and we’ll walk off. We’ll be okay with that.’ That was a horrible batting display,” the former opener added.
Coming to the match, KKR won the toss and opted to bowl first.
A 114-run stand between Sudharsan (52 in 36 balls, with six fours and a six) and Gill, who went to scored 90 in 55 balls, with 10 fours and three sixes, served as a solid foundation for a big score. Then a 58-run stand between Gill and Jos Buttler (41* in 23 balls, with eight fours) took GT to 198/3 in their 20 overs.
Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy, and Andre Russell got a wicket each for KKR.
During the run-chase, KKR, except for their skipper Ajinkya Rahane (50 in 36 balls, with five fours and a six), failed to put up much of a fight as superb spells from Prasidh Krishna (2/25) and Rashid Khan (2/25) reduced them to 159/8 at the end of their 20 overs.
Gill was given the ‘Player of the Match’ for his knock of 90 runs.
KKR have slipped to the seventh spot with three wins and their fifth loss, while GT maintained their supremacy at the top with six wins and two losses, giving them 12 points. (ANI)