Rahane on Eden Gardens strip

Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Ajinkya Rahane said he had no complaints on how the Eden Gardens pitch behaved in the opening match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) against Royal Challengers Bengaluru but said that he hoped that in the next matches, the pitch offers some help for the home spinners.
“We would love to see the pitch helping the spin bowlers but again, this wicket was under cover for the last one and a half days. Hazlewood used the conditions really well and bowled pretty well. Again, we would love to see some spin on this wicket but again, no complaints. Both the spinners we have, the quality they have, they can bowl in any kind of wicket and I am sure they are confident as well. But again, the wicket was different, played different because it was under covers and it was raining yesterday,” Rahane said at the post-match press conference.
Hazlewood, whose decision to bowl short paid dividends on the pitch, said that it was a conscious choice, keeping in mind the conditions.
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“It was more based on pitch and conditions. The full ball probably wasn’t going to do as much unless you were searching for swing. I found that it was sort of sticking in the wicket a little and the bounce was quite good. I like bowling here at Eden Gardens. And yeah, we just sort of stuck to our lengths,” the Australian pacer told reporters after the match.

The Eden wicket did not offer much help to Kolkata’s premier spinner Varun Chakravarthy with the Champions Trophy-winning bowler getting thrashed all around the park former teammate Phil Salt. In the 4th over of RCB’s chase, Salt had taken Chakravarthy to task, smashing 21 runs with the help of 3 boundaries and a 6 with the bowler ending with 43 runs in his allotted 4 overs. The mystery spinner would end up taking out the Englishman but not before the damage had been done as RCB would end up building from that innings and winning the match 7 wickets, ending their 4-match losing streak to KKR.
Meanwhile, for RCB, Krunal Pandya had a memorable debut, accounting for the scalps of Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer and Rinku Singh which pushed the initiative firmly into the hands of the visitors.
“I just wanted to narrow down my focus upon returning in the 11th over. Batters can hit sixes consently, so you have to find ways to up your game. So, I wanted to bowl quick, changes of pace were useful too,” Krunal said after the match.