Indian T20 League 2022: Three reasons why Chennai lost against Kolkata

Chennai were completely dominated by Kolkata in the tournament opener. Despite all the hype, they weren't really at their best on Saturday. If the yellow army are to have a good season this time around, then they will have to work on a lot of things.

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Barring the veterans like MS Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo, none of the other players really stood up for the franchise. So what exactly went wrong for Chennai in their first game? Today, we shall be taking a look at three mistakes by Chennai during the tournament opener.

1) Early wickets:

Most of the time, teams that lose a major chunk of their wickets in the powerplay overs seldom go on to win the game. Chennai losing early wickets meant that there was a lot of pressure on the middle-order. Besides, it forced them to play defensive cricket.

Moreover, Kolkata's bowlers gained confidence due to the same as well. It put Chennai on the back foot. Thus, the top-order batters need to be a little more careful henceforth.

2) Didn't attack the spinners:

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Playing the spinners in the middle overs are always crucial. Although Chennai did have a batting collapse, they didn't really attack the spinners. Their batters should have been a little more positive against the Kolkata spinners.

Varun Chakravarthy went for just 23 runs in his four overs, and Sunil Narine gave just 15 runs in his full quota of four overs. While the batters couldn't really go berserk against them, a few more shots would have certainly helped their cause.

3) Poor bowling in the powerplay overs:

Despite having a bad day, Chennai did really well to take the game to the 18th over. However, they were below-par in the powerplay overs, and couldn't pick a single wicket in the first six overs. The bowlers didn't even look threatening.

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They let Ajinkya Rahane get to a positive start. The lack of aggression within the bowlers was clearly visible. Chennai badly missed the services of Deepak Chahar, who is superb during the initial overs of an innings.