Finch: 'Was so strange to watch KKR just trying to knock it around'

Aaron Finch and Cheteshwar Pujara have questioned Venkatesh Iyer's lack of intent during Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) 199 chase against Gujarat Titans (GT). Venkatesh walked in at No. 4 with KKR 43 for 2 in the sixth over but struggled to get going against GT's spinners and eventually fell to Sai Kishore for a 19-ball 14, without hitting a single boundary. With the rest of the line-up also not clicking, KKR lost by 39 runs.

"You need to have an intent to take it [spin] down," Finch said on ESPNcricinfo's Time Out. "You can't hit a six or a boundary if you're not trying to, if your first instinct is to just knock it into the leg side and run one. Then you're on a hiding to nothing and it was just mesmerising, the lack of intent."

KKR have a long batting line-up - Angkrish Raghuvanshi came in at No. 9 on the day - but barring captain Ajinkya Rahane, who made 50 off 36, none of the other batters crossed 30. While Raghuvanshi - coming in as Impact Player - has been pushed up and down the order, Venkatesh was sent ahead of him as a left-hand option to counter GT's spinners. Pujara felt the communication from the coaching staff to Venkatesh on how he needed to go about his innings should have been clear too.

"There are times when, as a batter, you feel that the conditions are a little challenging," Pujara said. "You just want to knock it around but when you have a timeout, the coaches and the support staff come in and you make another strategy, that 'this is something which is not working, we are leaving too many runs behind'. I do agree that Venkatesh didn't play the role which he should have played. But at the same time, was he told that he just had to knock around when Rashid was bowling and he didn't have to take him on? I don't know what the message was."

KKR were coming into the game having failed to chase down 112 against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Mullanpur. At 62 for 2, they were the favourites in the chase, but they dramatically collapsed against Yuzvendra Chahal.

Here, KKR were 68 for 2 after ten overs, the required rate ballooned to 13.10. Were they wary of going hard against GT spinners, given what had happened against PBKS? Or did they just miscalculate the chase? Either way, Finch felt the game was over by then.

"They had nine batters in their team," Finch said. "That automatically tells me they are going to be ultra aggressive at the start, try to get up to or ahead of the [required] run rate, so that when the wicket deteriorates, there's room for error. For me, that was just a really poor calculation of how to go about a run chase of 200. There are nine batters, you don't need to rebuild anything.

"The game was over after ten [overs], wasn't it? They just let the required run rate get so far out of hand. It was so strange to watch them just trying to knock it around. Very, very strange innings.

"They went out with the attitude not to lose by 100 runs. It was almost like, 'You know what, let's get 160, and we'll walk off. We'll be okay with that.' That was a horrible batting display."

Pujara felt that KKR's bowling had also not been up to mark.

"It wasn't a kind of pitch where you leave too many runs behind," he said. "It wasn't a flat pitch where in the last five overs you can get 60-70 runs. It looks like they didn't bowl well in the first innings because there was enough turn on it. They should have been chasing somewhere around 180. On that pitch, if you are leaving more than ten runs an over in the last ten, then you are always chasing the game. You at least have to be close to 90-odd runs in the first ten."