Magical Eden lets Phil Salt steal its heart

The loudest cheer at the Eden Gardens during Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) second home game of IPL 2024 against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Sunday afternoon, came around an over break around the 16th over in the second innings.

The crowd was on their feet enjoying their team's performance. And the DJ lit the perfect spark to make them fly by blaring down, "Koi mil gaya; Mera dil gaya; Kya bataoon yaaron; Main to hil gaya" (I have found someone; I have lost my heart; what can I say, my friends? I am totally shaken) on full volume.

For the non-poets and the small section of LSG fans in attendance, it was an obvious ode to the team co-owner Shah Rukh Khan, who was the lead in the song and its super-hit 1998 film, Kuch kuch hota hai. SRK was also in attendance, in shiny purple, egging on his audience to cheer the men in front of them.

But for the metaphor-hungry and those among the sea of KKR fans grooving to the tune, it was impossible to not notice that it meant a lot more than that. And that's because it was only made possible due to someone in the middle - Phil Salt.

He was batting at 84, on his way to a rollicking unbeaten 47-ball 89 which was going to make him the first KKR opener not named Sunil Narine to win a Player of the Match award in 35 matches across more than two years.

And on the second ball of the previous over, Eden had seen him in his full glory. They had seen him brandishing his bat down, across, and then up so powerfully against an off-cutter by Mohsin Khan, by far LSG's best bowler on the day, that the ball went flying 98 meters into the deep mid-wicket region.

60,000 people had hushed together at just the right moment to hear the crack off his bat before breaking into joy and applause. It was Salt announcing that they had found their man and he was going to steal their hearts and shake them to the core.

And that wasn't even the best shot of the night. That came in the powerplay, on the first ball of the sixth over. Pacer Yash Thakur tried to catch Salt (who was batting at 21 off 13) by surprise with a slower short ball outside off to start a new spell.

Salt looked to have been outfoxed for a mini-second too as he was shaping up for a cut but the ball held on to the pitch and came close to his body. But in the next mini-second, he had changed his shot, jumping up gently and slicing it as if using a butter knife, and carving it off the middle through the same gap for four.

It was a shot of precision KKR is not habitual of seeing. And nor was his performance -- how he didn't let the early jitters against Shamar Joseph make him throw away his wicket, how he didn't spare the spinners when doing well against pacers, how he stayed there until KKR chased down 162 for an eight-wicket win.

Phil Salt is an expensive breath of fresh air for KKR

Among the five openers with the worst powerplay average in IPL 2023, (minimum 10 balls) three were from KKR - Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, and N Jagadeesan. Salt currently averages 50 in IPL 2024 powerplays - the eighth-best among all openers. Salt also strikes at 161.29 in the phase - also the eighth best.

This innings was the Englishman's second half-century in IPL 2024 in just five innings. Through it, he equaled Gurbaz's total 50s in a KKR shirt, doubled Roy's 2023 tally, and also matched the number of 50s KKR openers scored in IPL 2022.

In IPL 2023, KKR had the worst batting average in powerplay and the third-worst strike rate. This year, thanks to Salt and Narine, they are leading the average chart and are the third-best in strike-rate. It has been an utter and complete overhaul.

Narine is no longer the only one playing hit-or-get-out with his partner's spot being up for musical chairs. Instead, he has found another of his kind but more technically secure, more ICC's second-ranked T20I batter-ish. And he has repeatedly done it after keeping for 20 overs in humid, sweltering, heat.

"I told Swanny (Graeme Swann) that I was going to melt two overs in," he said after the match. "I don't know [how I did it] to be honest, I just kept going... I do enjoy here (at Eden). In India, it's probably the most similar conditions to those at home. The ball bounces a little bit more, you can sort of his squarer. I do like the wicket here."

The fact that Salt likes pace on the ball straightaway sets him apart from most of the KKR top and middle-order batters who excel in spinning conditions.

When the team found it tough in IPL 2023, they asked for those conditions at Eden to utilize their home advantage more but the curator denied it. There was a fear that they might fall into the same hole this season too.

But through his expansive shots and reading of variations, and a comfort against bouncers, Salt has negated that to perfection. It's no surprise that both of his half-centuries have come at Eden and in winning causes. And now, he'd be the first one licking his lips seeing that KKR play their next four games at home too.

Come the end of the season, how many would remember that he was not in the team's original plans and was signed as a replacement after Roy pulled out? But most would not forget the moment they truly found him - under vintage Eden lights, in the most Bollywood way possible, with Shah Rukh Khan songs playing in the background.