The Kolkata Knight Riders have a pattern of play and most of their strategies depend on the all-round bowling unit. They rely on their bowlers to restrict the opposition to a formidable total that their batsmen can then chase, and it is more often than not that they lean back on their bowlers to defend any kind of total on a given day. KKR coach Trevor Bayliss too agreed with that fact and believed it is the bowlers who have formed the basis of the team over the years.

“Our bowling has been our strength over a number of years. All teams try to play to the strengths of the players they’ve got and the conditions that their home ground suits, and we do that as well. We have a good all-round bowling attack,” Bayliss said.

“If we play on a wicket that has some bounce and some seam in it, we have got some very good seam bowlers. Especially here at the Eden Gardens in the second half of the season when it gets hot, the wicket does take some turn for which we have got some good spin bowlers as well to do that job. Our bowlers in the last three or four years have done a fantastic job.

” It is no different this year as well. But what stands out for KKR’s bowling unit this time is the absence of Sunil Narine, who has been their go-to bowler over the last couple of years, from the setup. With Narine out of action Bayliss believes Brad Hogg has done a fantastic job to make sure they don’t miss Narine’s services much.

“Brad Hogg has done a fantastic job in Sunil Narine’s absence. We picked him as a replacement to Sunil because we weren’t sure of Sunil’s participation. We wanted a spinner that we thought a lot of batters would struggle to pick.

Certainly Brad is in that category. Even the players who play with him regularly find him difficult to pick. There weren’t too many who picked his wrong one.

If the batsmen are not sure what is coming down from the wicket it just makes their job more difficult and that means more wickets for us.” What pleased Bayliss even more was that some of his batsmen, who were off the boil in the early part of the tournament, have started to score runs. Robin Uthappa didn’t have the best of starts in the tournament but found form with a match-winning 80 against Chennai Super Kings.

Captain Gautam Gambhir too has been providing good starts to the team along with Uthappa. Manish Pandey and Yusuf Pathan who looked patchy so far got some vital runs under their belt in the previous game against Sunrisers Hyderabad. If the batting and bowling could click together, the coach believed KKR will be a force to be reckoned with.

“I don’t think we have had the perfect game yet but we are certainly heading in the right direction. Our batting is starting to click. It has probably been our weak-link early in the tournament.

Some of our batsmen are starting to come in to form. If we can score some runs and can get that batting clicking, we will be a force in the competition. We have always said that we want to be playing our best cricket towards the end of the tournament and that is the case at the moment.

” KKR next face Delhi Daredevils who are coming off a loss against the Mumbai Indians. One major positive out of that loss for the Daredevils was the return of form of Yuvraj Singh who scored a half-century. KKR was of the view that they would have to be at their best to defeat a good all-round Daredevils side.

“If you look at the ladder, it is very close and there are seven or eight good teams here. Any one of those teams can beat you on any given day. It is not as if you can take any of the teams easy.

We will have to sit down and have a close look at the Daredevils. Yuvraj is scoring runs and we know what a dangerous player he can be. They have a lot of younger Indian players in form as well at the top of the order.

JP Duminy is a class player, and so are Angelo Mathews and their two leg spinners. They are a very good and dangerous team. We will have to be at our best to win.

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Source: http://www.iplt20.com/news/2015/more-news/6569/knocking-out-openers-is-key-moody