Lynn-sanity returns to Eden in a not-so-insane way

BySubhayan Dutta, SportsCafe Editor

04/21/2018

Though Nitish Rana’s brilliance and Andre Russell’s beastly resurgence have kept Kolkata Knight Riders on the better half of the points table, they had really missed Chris Lynn’s prowess so far. And, Eden Gardens, on Saturday, saw the Australian getting back his mojo, although in a losing cause.

The three wins from five matches that put Kolkata Knight Riders on the top of the IPL table mostly came from brilliant individual performances. And more dangerously than that, they were beautifully papering over the cracks on KKR’s terrible start to the season. Being a batting-light squad, which had the least number of players on their roaster among all IPL teams, KKR weren’t the favourites to get on with a bang either.

While the likes of Vinay Kumar and Rinku Singh were bound to be gambles with little expectations from them, what had been a thorn in KKR’s eyes was a misfiring Chris Lynn. The explosive opener was their biggest weapon last season, where he amassed 295 runs in seven matches with an average of 49.16, and the franchise didn’t think twice before splurging 9.6 crores at the mega-auction.

Prior to this, though Lynn had been a regular sufferer with his shoulders, which more than often kept him out of games, his lack of form was hardly a concern. An exploiter of the power-play overs with his cavalier willow wielding attitude, the Brisbane-born player almost always connects the ball sweet and hard. Giving away dot balls or struggling to pick bowlers were never really the traits of Lynn, which when sprung up now, had been a source of worry.

It was only after the Big Bash League star became an overnight sensation in IPL last season that people looked up to take notice. Prior to the 2017 injury, the Aussie had a surgery on his left shoulder in 2014 for a rotator cuff problem and had injured the same shoulder again the very next year. However, just when all hopes from the promising batsman were dwindling, he came back to become 2015-16 Big Bash League’s leading run-scorer with 378 runs at an average of 54.00 and strike-rate of 173.

This wasn’t the first time he had made a comeback though. After missing a whole month for KKR last season, Lynn returned to score a 22-ball 50 against RCB and brought up a record 105 runs in powerplay alongside Sunil Narine. He ended the season with an 84-run knock too, boasting a strike rate of 180, which more than explained KKR’s over-reliability (and therefore the lack of potential backups) on the player despite the massive injury concerns.

Lynn came from an injury yet again this season, which was enough to excite the fans till their biggest fear was founded as a lacklustre Lynn was upstaged. After getting just 5 in the first match against RCB, he followed them with a modest 22 and 49 against CSK and SRH. The 49-run knock, though seemingly positive with seven boundaries, came in 34 balls out of which 12 were dots. And although it was supposed to boost his confidence, Lynn followed it up with 34 and 0 against DD and RR, with Krishnappa Gowtham sending him for a golden duck in Jaipur.

This had given rise to a lot of speculations, with many even suggesting dropping him and giving chance to the young Shubman Gill to open. After the game against Rajasthan, Lynn had stated that the long dry spell between the Trans-Tasmania Series and IPL, where he missed the Pakistan Super League, had taken a toll on his composure and that was showing. The continuous shoulder injuries were also restricting his back-lift and leg swing too, which all culminated into a player that looked a pale shadow of the former batsman who could strike fear in any bowler’s heart.

However, Lynn had to find a solution and fast, which was seen in against Kings XI Punjab on Saturday. Though he couldn’t prevent the dot balls, which were 11 this game, Lynn was seen rotating the strike more often and even going for 2s at times. As the pressure of a blank shot started releasing from his heavy shoulders, the shots started flowing in. And to everyone’s delight, his first six came in the ninth ball towards fine leg off Ankit Rajpoot’s delivery.

Lynn hit four sixes at the Eden on Saturday and the savvy batsman picked Punjab’s pacers for all of them- Rajpoot one, Barinder Sran two and Andrew Tye one. It hardly required a high back-lift or an extended pull as he worked the pace on the deliveries magnificently. As for the boundaries, Lynn hit six of them with only one coming on the leg. He scored 74 off 41 balls and got out while attempting to accelerate the run-rate at a crucial juncture of the game, which if he would have done right, might have seen KKR on the winning side on the night.

However, the good news for KKR fans would be that they aren’t playing for the next six days, which allows enough rest for the players and time for Lynn to not only recover his blades but reflect on this display.

Lynn-sanity returns to Eden in a not-so-insane way

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