CHENNAI: Kolkata Knight Riders bowling coach Tim Southee admitted that his team has to improve its overall bowling in order to restrict opponents to gettable total and win games. Against CSK on Tuesday KKR lost their third game in the IPL by 32 runs.
KKR conceded 72 runs in six overs, which helped CSK eventually post a winnable score of 192/5 in 20 overs. "On Tuesday, we were probably just a little bit short and a little bit wide at times during the power play and you can't do that in a tournament like this. We are better looking to come after you from ball one. I think Karthik Tyagi bowled exceptionally well, which is a positive to take forward in the next game. A young guy who's had a number of setbacks but to see him bowling fast and bowling well is a great sign. We know Vaibhav Arora has been a seasoned performer for KKR and had success in the IPL so I'm sure he'll bounce back to his best over the next few games as well," said Southee.
India spinner Varun Chakravarthy has not been at his best in the IPL so far. Even in the T20 World Cup after the initial league phase there was a drop in his performance in the remainder of the tournament. But Southee has faith in the abilities of Varun and insists that the Chennai based spinner will bounce back.
"Look at Varun's record in the IPL, it's an unbelievable record. When you have a record like that and you have a few rough games there's a lot of outside noise. But I think the success he's had for Kolkata for a long time now, the success he's had for India, he'll bounce back at some stage," opined Southee. "It's just like anything when the confidence is up, you have a lot more confidence in yourself, but at the moment he's training hard, he loves bowling, he's always working on his game so I'm sure like I said his record in the IPL is an unbelievable record for India so he's a world-class player and I'm sure he'll be back to his best in no time," added the Kiwi.
KKR have had quality all-rounders in the past who had won matches single handedly for them. Their latest recruit Cameron Green performed poorly against CSK. Cameron Green conceded 30 runs in two overs and in the chase, fell to Noor Ahmad off the very first ball.
"He (Green) hasn't performed the way he would have wanted, yes. But he is a quality player, and I think he didn't play a lot of cricket leading into the IPL. Yeah, but of all people, he would be disappointed with himself. I'm sure he'll bounce back at some stage this season," Southee said.