The explosive power-hitting that the Indian Premier League (IPL) scoreboards call “Lynn-sanity” hasn’t yet happened yet for KKR. Opening batsmen Robin Uthappa has looked promising without really stamping his personality on a game; DK hasn’t played a game-changing knock which we all witness in the Sri Lanka and yet in four games played, but Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have already got to 200 two times and 177 once while batting. That happened because while Chris Lynn, Uthappa and Karthik have all put their shoulders to the wheel, it is Nitish Rana and Andre Russell who have hit the bowl hard. Rana has had scores of 34, 16, 18 and 59 at a strike rate of 141.1 and Russell has got 15, 88, 9 and 41 at 239.06. Together, they have provided KKR maturity and muscle.  

“Russell’s blitz took the game away from us. We had done all the planning but couldn’t execute them. It was a match-winnings innings…He made (Mohammed) Shami lose the plot for six-seven deliveries and that was enough for him to have a bad game,” said Delhi Daredevils’ spin bowling coach Sridharan Sriram, referring to the power-packed 12-ball 41 from the Jamaican muscle mass which led to KKR again beating Delhi Daredevils by 71 runs .Sridharan the spin coach of Delhi Daredevils didn’t agree, saying without Russell’s meteor shower on the Eden Gardens’ stands, KKR would have been restricted to 170-odd and that would have been a par-score.