Kolkata, April 2:
Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Daniel Vettori has played down Kolkata Knight Riders’ poor start with the ball, saying experienced spinners Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy remain a major threat and the “battle” against them will be crucial in their IPL match here on Thursday.
Chakravarthy has lost his rhythm since he was taken to cleaners by South Africa in the T20 World Cup in February as he looked ordinary in a wicketless spell against Mumbai Indians.
Narine too has not found his usual sting as the duo were taken apart at the Wankhede with KKR failing to defend 220 in their IPL opening game.
With KKR also dealing with a thin pace attack – Harshit Rana and Akash Deep ruled out and Matheesha Pathirana still awaiting fitness clearance – much will again depend on their spin pair as they return home.
“In terms of KKR’s spin bowlers, I think there’s an immense amount of respect around those two and what they’ve done for the franchise, what they’ve done for their country, so in no way will we be taking them lightly, even if they didn’t have their best day in the last game,” Vettori said.
“They’ve proven themselves time and time again, particularly at this venue, so the battle against them, those two tomorrow, will be one of the key aspects of the game.”
The match will be played on the same surface where New Zealand thrashed South Africa by nine wickets, chasing 170 in just 12.5 overs en route to the final in the T20 World Cup last month.
While KKR would ideally want assistance from their spinners, Vettori feels the pitch may not offer much turn, instead it could aid strokeplay.
“Maybe hold would be a better description than spin,” he said, expressing surprise at the grass cover.
“It’s obviously got a lot of grass on it, more than we anticipated, but I think it’s the same surface they used for the semifinal, South Africa-New Zealand, and that was a fantastic wicket.
“So, generally over the last few years, the surfaces over here have been amazing, and obviously the size of the ground and the outfield means it’s generally high-scoring. So, we probably could have another run-fest on our hands for both teams.
“I think it’s a good surface. There’s a little bit of grass on it. We’ve seen over the last few years at Eden Gardens that there hasn’t been a huge amount of spin, and the scores have been high, and that’s due to the size of the ground and how quick the outfield is, so I mean, we don’t think so, but we can always be surprised, and I think both teams will be prepared for that scenario.”