Varun Chakravarthy, speaking about KKR’s opening IPL 2024 defeat, said, “We could have assessed the pitch better.”

Following the Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders IPL 2024 match on Monday, April 8, Varun Chakravarthy acknowledged that his team misjudged the playing conditions. At the MA Chidambaram Stadium, the encounter saw KKR’s run of three consecutive victories come to an end as they were defeated by seven wickets.

KKR struggled to sustain pace after scoring 56 runs in the powerplay and ended up scoring 137 for nine in their allotted 20 overs.

In retrospect, Varun Chakravarthy said that they should have done a better job of evaluating the pitch because it stayed low and made it difficult to connect on strokes.

Because the pitch was keeping low, we could have evaluated it more accurately. Though it was difficult to make the shots, Chakravarthy stated in the press conference following the game, as cited by India Today, “I thought 160 would have been a par score.”

He went on to say that although the wicket appeared level, its behavior was not. According to him, a fighting total on it might have been between 160 and 170.

“I thought the pitch was flat when I first saw it, but the track performed very differently. That is possible on any surface. It would have been a fighting total of 160–170. In the second innings, there was a lot of dew, and Dube was difficult to bowl to. I had trouble gripping the ball because of the really damp seam, Chakravarthy continued.

After the powerplay, we were unable to promptly evaluate the situation:  Shreyas Iyer

The captain of KKR, Shreyas Iyer, stated after the game that although they had a great start in the powerplay, they lost successive wickets and were unable to swiftly analyze the situation since it was difficult to score runs.

“We had a fantastic powerplay start, but we dropped wickets one after the other. After the powerplay, we were unable to swiftly assess the situation, and scoring runs wasn’t simple. Knowing the conditions rather well, they (CSK) bowled in accordance with their plans. It wasn’t simple for the inexperienced hitters to pursue them right away. We were attempting to build the innings, but things didn’t go as planned.

The powerplay resulted in a change of wicket. We felt that 160–170 was a decent result because we were in a comfortable position, but we lost steam. We must start over from scratch and apply what we have learned. I’m relieved that this occurred early in the competition. We are very familiar with the conditions back home when we return. Shreyas Iyer stated, “We must analyze the circumstances and make the most of them.

Kolkata maintains their second-place standings in the table despite the loss, with six points and a net run rate of +1.528 from three victories out of four games. On Sunday, April 14, at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, they will take on KL Rahul’s Lucknow team.