20 April,2009 08:10 AM IST | | Sanjjeev K Samyal
KKR skipper McCullum admits the team was on the backfoot right at the outset Having been away from cricket for a longtime now, former India and KKR skipper Sourav Ganguly appeared rusty against Deccan Chargers during their IPL match at Newlands yesterday. pic/AP
Even before a ball was bowled, the Kolkata Knight Riders team was under pressure. The unending controversies surrounding their captaincy debate were clearly eating into the team morale.
Poor performance
Hence, their poor performance in the opening game of the 2009 Indian Premier League did not come as a surprise to those closely following Shah Rukh Khan's team's fortunes.
It was a huge ask for Brendon McCullum to galvanise his troops within two days of being appointed captain.
His men appeared confused, disjointed, and their body language was poor. In such circumstances, the only way out is to lead from the front. To make matters worse for McCullum, he was unfortunate to nick an innocuous RP Singh delivery going down the leg-side.
In walked the man he had replaced at the helm Sourav Ganguly. The former India skipper is usually known to thrive under pressure, but, being out of active cricket for long, he looked rusty. Against a lesser opponent, he might have got the time to get into his groove. Here, the left-hander walked straight into a situation where he had to be at his best to succeed. A charged-up Fidel Edwards was working up pace which one faces only at the highest level and Ganguly had no answer to his short of length barrage. An out of sorts Ganguly played out a maiden over and after an uncomfortable 12-ball-one-run stay at the crease, he flashed at a wide Harmeet Singh delivery to perish.
There was no recovery and the team crashed to 102 all out in 19.4 overs. The Deccan Chargers batted as if they were batting on a different wicket. Herschelle Gibbs and Rohit Sharma toyed with the KKR bowling to canter home with eight wickets and 6.5 overs to spare.
Never in the game
"We never felt we were in the game," admitted McCullum. "It is a very frustrating result," said the skipper.
"The start was hugely disappointing, we were always on the back foot from there and things did now went our way through the middle. And with the kind of start we had, we were always going to struggle."
McCullum refuted that controversies took a toll on his team. "We were in the media spotlight a bit, but the confidence and the morale is very strong," he said.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 101 all out in 19.4 overs (Brad Hodge 31; RP Singh 4 for 22, Pragyan Ojha 2 for 14, Scott Styris 2 for 32) lost to Deccan Chargers 104 for 2 (Herschelle Gibbs not out 43, Rohit Sharma not out 36) by eight wickets.
