#SackManagementSaveKKR trends on Twitter as KKR's downfall continues in IPL 2021

The freefall of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League 2021 continues. Half of their 14-match league journey is finished, and all they have is four points from seven games. Left gasping from breath in these early stages of Playoff qualification, KKR seems to have too many holes in their ship at the moment to prevent it from sinking.

A lackluster top-order, lack of intent throughout the innings, big names punching way below their weight in the middle-order, inability to score at the death, a captain with diminishing returns with the bat, and questionable on-field tactics. It is no surprise that they have hardly found themselves in the desirable column of the table, and sit at fifth currently, tied on points with two teams below them but separated by Net Run Rate.

KKR’s scratchy IPL 2021 journey

Having made a winning start to their campaign with a 10-run victory over SRH, not much has gone as per plans for them ever since. Against MI, they somehow managed to fail themselves chasing 152, needing 31 off 30 with Andre Russell and Dinesh Karthik in the middle. They lost by 10 runs.

Against RCB, Eoin Morgan took mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy off the attack moments after he had removed Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar in the same over. He was brought back when Glenn Maxwell and Devdutt Padikkal were both well set, with the former in a murderous mood.

In the same match, Morgan handed off-spinner Harbhajan Singh the ball in the penultimate over against AB de Villiers and Kyle Jamieson, two right-handers, who picked 18 runs and took the score to 204. Batters disappointed later and submitted themselves to lose by 38 runs.

Bowlers leaked runs with both hands against CSK, and batsmen left the team 31/5 in pursuit of 221 before Russell’s 22-ball 54 and Cummin’s 34-ball 66 reignited dead hopes, but in vain as they fell 18 short. In the next game against Rajasthan Royals, a forgettable batting performance took them to 133/9 with the highest score of 36, before the opponents chased the target with 6 wickets and 7 balls to spare.

Bowlers struck in tandem against PBKS, bundling them to 123/9 as KKR chased the target on the back some sensible knocks from Tripathi and Morgan to break their four-match losing streak, but they got back to it, losing the most recent encounter against Delhi Capitals by 7 wickets courtesy the same old problems.

KKR settled for another unimposing total on a track where their opponents, Delhi Capitals, went hammer and tongs. Their 154 was largely thanks to Russell’s 27-ball 45. While defending, Morgan once again made questionable choices, not giving Pat Cummins the new ball, who bagged three wickets later, and gave only a run in the last of the powerplay when the previous five had yield a whopping 66, including Prithvi Shaw’s historic opening over off Shivam Mavi.

Amidst all this, questions over Andre Russell’s batting position cannot skip a mention. Neither can Eoin Morgan’s 92 runs at an average of 15.33 from seven games this year.

#SackManagementSaveKKR

The continuous downfall has invited criticism for the Knight Riders from all corners, with experts bashing their intent, questioning their captain’s tactics, terming their batting style worthy of being fast-forwarded, to people seeking the sacking of their management to “save KKR”. Time is flying fast for the Knight Riders. With half their journey over, they might still want to look at the glass half full.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: