IPL 2020, Kolkata Knight Riders season review: Top performers, match results and video highlights

Kolkata Knight Riders would perhaps be the most disappointed team at the end of Indian Premier League 2020. They finished the league stage in fifth position, tied on 14 points with Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad, and missed out on a playoff spot due to net run-rate: a deficit of 0.042.

The two-time IPL champions struggled for stability right through the season, with injuries and lack of form for key players hampering their progress.

Dinesh Karthik led KKR in the first seven matches, before handing over the reins to England’s Eoin Morgan. The move could only be termed a mixed bag as KKR lost more matches than they won in the second half of the season.

A huge downside for KKR was the limited contribution from two of their key overseas stars: Sunil Narine and Andre Russell. While Narine did alright with the ball in a couple of close games, he didn’t fire as an opener before being pushed down the order and missed four games after being called for a suspect action. Russell, however, failed to match the lofty standards he had set in IPL 2019.

The Knight Riders didn’t go on a big losing streak like some of the other teams did, but they struggled to string together consecutive victories to gain confidence and momentum.

Despite that, they were in a decent position to make the playoff with the final week of the league stage remaining. But an unexpected six-wicket defeat to Chennai Super Kings in their penultimate game sealed their fate. They would have also sneaked through had Mumbai Indians beaten SRH in the last match of the league stage, but it wasn’t to be, after two nervous nights of watching on other results in hope.

Best performers

Young Shubman Gill did show his class and finished as the highest run-scorer for KKR this season, but he will know that he could have finished with a much better average than 33.84 and, more importantly, a strike rate of 117.96.

In the batting department, the other two players who made an impact were Morgan and Nitish Rana. The English left-hander gained prominence as the tournament progressed and was the glue that held Kolkata’s middle order together. Rana made some match-changing contributions but was also dismissed first ball on a couple of occasions.

Here again, the thing that hurt KKR the most was Russell’s form. He, too, missed four games due to injury and could manage just 117 runs in nine innings.

Undoubtedly, the biggest positive for KKR this season was Varun Chakravarthy. The mystery spinner was a major force right through their campaign and delivered almost each time he was brought into the attack. He was the only bowler to take a five-wicket haul this season and impressed one and all with his skill and accuracy.

Pat Cummins, the most expensive buy in IPL 2020 at a whopping Rs 15.5 crore, didn’t quite justify his price tag. The Australian right-arm pacer contributed with the bat and showed glimpses of his potential with the ball, but KKR would definitely have expected more that 12 wickets from him. He did almost take them to the playoff with a big performance in their final group stage game, but it wasn’t to be.

Former India Under-19 stars Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti had their moments but didn’t have a big impact overall. Also, it could be argued that New Zealand quick Lockie Ferguson deserved more game-time.

Video highlights of all KXIP matches in IPL 2020

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Highlights videos courtesy: iplt20.com