Kolkata Knight Riders Not Out yet from IPL 2010

What is it about us KKR fans that makes us so passionate about our team, our cricket? Why do we have the biggest fan club in the IPL, convincingly doubling the number of fans any of the past champions have? Consider these numbers and facts before we move ahead in this blog.

Four teams have won 2 games out of the 5 that they’ve played. The teams that have these stats are CSK, DD, KKR, and RR. The Royals won the first IPL, the Super Kings and the Daredevils were semi finalists in both IPL years, and the KXIP were semi finalists in the first edition. The Kolkata Knight Riders remain the only team in this group of teams with similar statistics who have not performed satisfactorily in either of the two years.

Yet, you’d be hard pressed to find as many fans that are as distraught as we are. The team stands on the 6th position in the league standings, so all is not yet lost. There are still loads of games to come and what we do now is what matters.

We were beaten convincingly by the Mumbai Indians on the 22nd of March. We should’ve used the start provided by Ganguly and Gayle. We should’ve launched an attack after 10 overs, knowing that even a wicket an over from here meant that we would complete our stipulated 20. But we didn’t. Call it team strategy or lack of hitting ability, or a bad batting track. We should’ve bowled better, Bond and Ishant should’ve maintained a better line and length and Karthik should’ve taken Tendulkar’s catch. All these ‘should haves’ make an interesting conversation, but what we need to do now is change from ‘what we should have’ and talk about ‘what we can’.

Take a look at what happened in the past two years in IPL. Last year DC won 7 matches and lost 7 matches! RCB won 8 and lost 6. And they made it to the finals. In IPL 2008, CSK lost 6 matches and they made it to the finals too. The tournament is demanding, but its main advantage is that teams can make a comeback even after being on the brink of extinction.

We have our next match on the 27th against the Kings XI Punjab. A lot of days to consider and reconsider our strategy, team composition, our strengths, and our weaknesses. Let’s not discard our team as repeaters of history. Our support is what makes the team.

Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo re! We are on the back foot, but we haven’t lost out. There are many more miles to go and many more promises to keep.