Subhayan Chakraborty in Chennai
Kolkata Knight Riders will take on SunRisers Hyderabad in the final of IPL 2024 at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. While KKR’s consistently attacking brand of cricket and team chemistry has stolen the show so far, they would be looking to end a 10-year trophy drought. One of the heroes for KKR in the 2014 final, Piyush Chawla (unbeaten 13 off 5 balls), in an exclusive interview with RevSportz, recalled the triumph, Gautam Gambhir’s influence, the Sunil Narine-Varun Chakaravarthy duo and more.
It’s been 10 years since KKR last won the IPL. You finished the match when they won the last time. What are the memories from that final?
How could I forget! I’ve played for multiple franchises, but I’ve only won the trophy once, in the KKR jersey. Besides, we played terribly at the start of 2014. We won only two of the first seven matches. Then we won nine in a row to reach the final. In that final against Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings), we were under immense pressure. We needed to score 200. At that time, 200 runs were not common in the IPL. Our innings started on a positive note. Manish (Pandey) scored 94. Yusuf bhai (Pathan) played a blistering innings. When I came in, we needed 15 runs off 12 balls. At the other end of the crease, Suryakumar Yadav thought we would win easily. But Mitchell Johnson, in the penultimate over, bowled brilliant five balls, he got Suryakumar out, and conceded just four runs.
And then?
I knew Awana (Parvinder Awana) would bowl the last over. I wanted to avoid taking a single at any cost. After Suryakumar got out, Sunil Narine came in. Comparing the batter Narine of today with that time isn’t fair. Back then, Narine was purely a fearsome spinner, not a batter. Anyway, seeing the field placement, I felt Johnson would bowl the last ball short. Thankfully, my connection (off the last ball of that over) was good enough for a six. We needed five runs in the last over after that. I finished the game with a boundary.
After hitting that boundary, you raised your bat and ran around the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Why wouldn’t I? We worked hard for two months to become champions. After two months of hard work, who wouldn’t feel good about getting rewarded? Gautam bhai (Gautam Gambhir) was spot on with his leadership that year. He is the epitome of a result-oriented captain. Nowadays, I hear many people talking about following processes. But Gambhir’s philosophy was simple: you’re playing on the field only to win. In 2014, a match-winner emerged in every match. Robin (Uthappa) played incredibly throughout the season.
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Now Gambhir is KKR’s mentor. Is his influence the same as when he was captain?
One hundred per cent. Nothing has changed about Gambhir. The same passion. The same vigour. Look, the KKR team playing in the final this time is almost the same as last time. But Gambhir’s arrival has made a significant difference, especially, making Narine open. When he was captain, he made Narine open. Now, as a mentor, he’s doing it again. This time Narine has scored over 450 runs with a strike rate of 170. Let’s not even talk about his bowling. It’s a huge bonus for any team.
In 2014, there was a spin trio: Narine, Shakib Al Hasan and yourself. Now there are two: Narine-Varun. Do you see similarities?
I do. Several KKR bowlers have taken 15-plus wickets so far. When so many bowlers in a team take 15-plus wickets, it shows that KKR is playing as a unit. Among the pace bowlers, only Mitchell Starc has significant experience. But Gambhir has perfectly prepared Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora. As I said, he’s KKR’s X-factor.
Can KKR win the final?
I won’t say that they will definitely win. SunRisers Hyderabad is a great team. Just because they couldn’t win against KKR in Qualifier 1, doesn’t mean they can’t win in the final.
Any message for your old team?
I haven’t retired yet. So, it wouldn’t be right to send a message. But yes, I have a soft corner for KKR. After all, KKR gave me the taste of my only IPL trophy win!
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