Cameron Green finally found some runs – 79 from 55 deliveries – yet Kolkata Knight Riders still slipped to defeat against Gujarat Titans on Friday night in Ahmedabad. The Australian all-rounder looked set for a match-winning hand, only to manage four from his last 11 balls while Titans allowed just 23 in the closing four overs. For KKR it was another case of “close, but not quite”, their final 180-7 proving light on a firm Motera surface.
“Let’s not take away anything from Cameron Green,” KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane insisted afterwards. With the Knight Riders 32-3 inside four overs, Green walked in at No. 4 and resisted the early wobble. “The kind of innings he has played has been amazing when we were three wickets down [for 32 after four overs], with a counter-attack. He took his time. It’s never easy. When things are not going your way as a team, and individually you are under pressure. But the courage which he has shown was fantastic,” Rahane added. Given Green had arrived at the franchise for INR 25.20 crore (he can actually bank only INR 18 crore under IPL rules) and had scored just 56 runs in five previous knocks, the relief around the KKR dressing-room was obvious.
The problem, though, was the tempo. Green crawled to eight from his first 14 balls; by the eighth over KKR sat on 59-3. A six and four off Rashid Khan in the 12th finally nudged his strike rate past a run a ball, yet momentum stalled at the death. In overs 16 and 17 Green didn’t face a delivery, an occupational hazard in T20s but still frustrating. When he did regain the strike – singles off the first balls of the 18th and 19th overs – he couldn’t find the boundary. The innings finished with one from his last four balls.
Ambati Rayudu, on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show, questioned both Green’s shot-selection and the lack of mid-pitch discussion. “He could have just used the pace a little more, he was trying to force the ball, trying to drive on the up,” Rayudu said. “When you know that the ball was moving a bit, maybe he could have played more off the back foot, maybe played through point, covers, used the pace more.
“Batting has to be in partnerships, even in T20 cricket. You cannot bat as an individual. When you have batting in partnerships and having that communication in the middle, that is when, you know, you tend to get through tough phases pretty easily. Because in this game, you have seen every batter batting individually. Like, he’s just been going after what he thinks he has to go after.
“No non-striker was coming and having a chat, saying that, okay, maybe we can take an over, maybe we can target [a bowler] in a certain area. So I think that communication is missing in that batting lineup.”
Titans, chasing 181, never truly panicked. Shubman Gill’s 41 at the top and a breezy 38* from David Miller kept the asking rate within reach. When Lockie Ferguson missed his yorkers at the death, Miller capitalised, finishing the chase with three balls to spare. KKR’s bowlers weren’t poor – Sunil Narine’s four tidy overs for 24 kept things interesting – but lacked a clinical presence in the final exchanges.
For Green, the positives outweigh the negatives: time in the middle, runs on the card, and indications that the tall right-hander can anchor as well as counter-punch. Yet, as Rayudu suggested, he and the wider KKR line-up “should be far more efficient” from overs 16-20. That, more than any price tag, will decide whether Kolkata’s season reignites or fizzles out.
