Cricket
Sidharth Monga 6y

What happened to Lynn's weakness against spin?

IPL, Cricket

Doesn't Lynn struggle against spin, and don't Kings XI Punjab have two of the best?

Valid questions those, and yet Chris Lynn scored 74 off 41 against a side that has mystery spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman and a rejuvenated R Ashwin. Lynn came into this match with his strike rate against pace exactly double that against spin, which was worse than a run a ball at 77.5. In his past contests with Ashwin, Lynn had scored just 11 off 14 balls, getting out once. And there were nine overs of spin bowled when he was at the wicket.

The great thing about T20s nowadays is watching people find a way. Lynn took a leaf out of the book of the other Chris - Gayle - and just avoided fighting his weakness. And when he targeted his strengths, he targeted them ruthlessly. Lynn scored 45 runs off the 21 balls of pace he faced, hitting four sixes off them. Against spin, Lynn was happy with just 29 off 20 balls. The smarter thing was his manipulation of strike: he faced just 20 out of the possible 54 spin deliveries when at the wicket, and 21 of the 38 bowled by the quicks. The biggest favour Lynn did himself and Kolkata Knight Riders was take those singles and get away from the strike when spin was on.

What was happening at the other end then?

Lynn is lucky to be a part of a team where the rest of the top order's strength is contrasting to his strength. Kings XI under Ashwin love their match-ups, but it gets a little difficult for fielding sides to execute matches if Lynn bats deep into an innings. Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa and Dinesh Karthik all are good players of spin. So as a captain, you are not sure which bowler to bowl at such partnerships. Ashwin went half and half. When pace was on, Lynn went after it; when spin was on, he watched Karthik do his thing from the other end. There was a time when Kings XI employed spin at both ends, but during a three-over spell, Lynn faced only four balls from them.

Russell's strengths against Sran's comfort level - what does captain choose?

The stage was set for Andre Russell. He came in to bat in the 16th over, Knight Riders had a decent score on the board, and the spinners had been bowled out. Russell came into the match with a strike rate of 274 against pace, with a six hit every three balls. Only one of his 19 sixes so far had been hit behind square. Now Ashwin has already shown he is a captain who looks at these things. He set the field accordingly for Barinder Sran. Mid-off was up to get cover square of the wicket. The plan seemed to be to force him to hit off the back foot.

And then Sran served a full toss. This is when your captaincy is tested, when you have to weigh batsmen's strengths and weaknesses against your bowler's comfort level. It just seemed that Sran was not comfortable bowling short. Ashwin listened to his bowler, the mid-off went back and pretty straight. Sran seemed comfortable with the plan of bowling full and straight, and try to not give Russell freedom to swing his arms. On another day, the shot drilled straight to long-off might have sailed over, but Sran delivered what he promised. The wicket was the difference between a chase of 220 and 192.

Did Karthik's instincts fail him?

Knight Riders have made good use of spin in the Powerplay this season. The match-up was set: in all T20 cricket, Narine had bowled 45 balls to Gayle for just 40 runs, getting him out twice. Narine is no stranger to opening the bowling either. In Shivam Mavi, Knight Riders had a swing bowler, a breed that can trouble Gayle. Narine had conceded 26 runs at a strike rate of 200 to Gayle's partner KL Rahul, but that is a small sample and in the form that Rahul is, every bowler is going to have to bowl out of his skin to contain him.

Surely Karthik knew these numbers but his instinct must have told him to test Gayle's ego against fellow Jamaican Russell. Two of the best practitioners of T20s against each other: the Bradman of the format against Kallis if not Sobers. That match-up hasn't worked for Russell, though. Russell came into the match having conceded 50 off 30 balls bowled to Gayle without any wicket. Gayle got stuck into Russell, taking 21 off seven Russell deliveries, and by the time Narine came on to draw some respect from Gayle he was bedded in and unlikely to make any desperate mistake.

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