2 mistakes and 1 masterstroke by KKR in their IPL 2023 match vs PBKS

Match 2 of the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) saw the Punjab Kings (PBKS) make a winning start to their campaign, beating the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by seven runs via the DLS method in Mohali on Saturday, April 1.

Kolkata were never expected to be among the favorites to make it to the playoffs, and although it has only been one game, it's already easy to see why. The two-time IPL champions have several areas to address before they can be taken seriously.

Captain Nitish Rana and head coach Chandrakant Pandit have a lot of work to do in the upcoming games and will need to analyze where things went wrong against PBKS. Several tactical decisions were off the mark.

Here are two mistakes and one masterstroke made by KKR in their IPL 2023 match against PBKS.

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#3 Mistake - KKR used only five bowlers

The PBKS batters took the attack to the opposition right from the start. Prabhsimran Singh set the tone in the first two overs before Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Jitesh Sharma took over.

Despite the onslaught, KKR stuck with their five frontline bowlers. Tim Southee went for 54 runs in his four overs, while Sunil Narine was uncharacteristically profligate with an economy rate of 10. Shardul Thakur, meanwhile, leaked 43 in four.

After Rajapaksa was dismissed, KKR could've brought on Anukul Roy. While the left-handed duo of Dhawan and Rajapaksa were batting, Rana could've bowled himself. And while there has been no official word on Andre Russell's fitness, the star all-rounder could've been brought into the game with the ball.

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#2 Masterstroke - Nitish Rana and Co. pulled things back well at the death

Too many fingers can't be pointed at Nitish Rana's captaincy, though. Even as PBKS seemed to be running away with the game, he and his bowlers managed to somewhat pull things back at the death.

When Jitesh Sharma was dismissed midway through the 14th over, Punjab were at 135/3. They had Sikandar Raza, Sam Curran, Shahrukh Khan, and Harpreet Brar to come and seemed well on course to breach the 200-run mark.

However, the last four overs yielded just 38 runs as Raza, Curran, and Shahrukh were held to strike rates below 160. Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy conceded just one six in a combined two overs post the strategic timeout, while Thakur's last cost only eight runs.

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#1 Mistake - Kolkata's batting order was bizarre

Venkatesh Iyer was a constant presence at the top of the order in the second half of IPL 2021, where KKR orchestrated an incredible turnaround to reach the final. However, since then, he has struggled to make an impact and has moved around the batting order.

Venkatesh batted in at No. 4 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and that perhaps influenced KKR's decision to use him as an impact player in that position. But they could have had some faith in him and fielded him at the top alongside Rahmanullah Gurbaz.

More bizarre was Kolkata's decision to promote Anukul Roy to No. 3. That not only didn't pay off as the youngster was dismissed for four but also relegated Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh to Nos. 5 and 6, respectively. The southpaw duo are much better than that and should definitely bat in the top five, at the very least.