Kolkata Knight Riders’ wicketkeeper-batter Phil Salt put the odds in his team’s favour as he hammered 68 runs in 33 deliveries and added 79 runs with opener Sunil Narine in the chase of 154, which propelled the hosts to a seven-wicket victory over Delhi Capitals in Match 47 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Eden Gardens here on Monday.
Salt had gone unsold in the auction for IPL 2024 held in December 2023. But KKR got his service for a base price of Rs. 1.5 crore after his countryman Jason Roy opted out of the tournament citing “personal reasons” and since then the star wicketkeeper-batter hasn’t disappointed the KKR fans.
On Monday, Salt hammered his fourth half-century of the season in 26 deliveries during an 18-run sixth over delivered by Khaleel Ahmed. With 392 runs off nine matches in IPL 2024, Salt now stands in the fourth position in the race for the Orange Cap.
“Good to be contributing. We have had a good run of home games, nice to have that continuity of conditions. Had to bounce back from a tough last game. Pleased to see the bowlers put in that sort of performance, really pleased for them,” said Phil Salt after the match.
Asked about his high-risk aggressive approach, Salt said one has to just keep backing himself.
“It is high-risk, but it is also about putting the odds in your favour and not taking the risks you don’t want to. You just have to keep backing yourself and keep taking the right options.”
Salt and Sunil Narine raised 79 for no loss in the Power-play. Lizaad Williams’ first over went for 23, with Salt doing the bulk of the damage before Narine whipped away a last-ball four. There was more Salt rubbed into Lizaad’s wounds when he dropped the English batter off the first ball of the second over. A miscue off Khaleel Ahmed went high in the air and Lizaad went under it at mid-on only to mess up the reverse-cup finish.
“Very helpful to keep on it first and see what it is doing. So, when you come out, you have a fairly good idea of how the surface is playing,” said Salt.
Asked about his conversations with Narine, Salt said, “Off the field, we have a laugh. On the field, not a lot. We usually do the talking a day before. He (Narine) does not talk much but he is a deep thinker of the game.
On them taking turns to attack, Salt said, “That is also part of the communication. If one of us gets going, you feed the strike to the other person. Good that we are on the same page as that.”
Off Axar Patel’s first ball after the Power-play, Narine looked for a big hit with the turn and picked out deep midwicket to be out for 15 runs. Axar, in the very next over, knocked out Salt’s off stump for 68 and a new pair of batters, Shreyas Iyer and Rinku Singh, came in for the chase. Rinku Singh got out for a run-a-ball 11. Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer continued ticking the board as they both added 57 runs for fourth wickets, which was enough to beat the visitors by seven wickets.