Need guys will take pressure off Russell: Katich

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have players who can take the pressure off Andre Russell who is doubtful for Sunday's crunch Indian Premier League (IPL) tie against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), assistant coach Simon Katich said on Saturday.

Russell aggravated his wrist injury that he had sustained in Chennai on April 6. He never looked at ease during his 21-ball 45 against Delhi Capitals on Friday.

"He got through the game pretty well last night. Unfortunately that waist high full toss inside-edged bruised his legs," Katich said on the eve of the match against CSK.

"He has been in magnificent form and won a couple of games for us single-handedly. And we've got to have a number of guys to step up and take a bit of the pressure off him," Katich said.

Russell has been KKR's go-to man this season with six consecutive 40-plus scores.

Katich was also asked about the poor standard of umpiring in the tournament.

"I don't want to get into trouble. I will give a stock standard answers: It's a tough job. Obviously last night, there was a contentious one and unfortunately it didn't go away," the former Australia opener said, referring to Shikhar Dhawan's reprieve while Delhi were chasing 179.

Dhawan was batting on 11 when a contentious review went in his favour. The India opener went to win the game for Delhi with a belligerent unbeaten 97.

Talking of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Katich said KKR are keen to see what the shrewd tactician has up his sleeve.

Dhoni used his spin force to perfection to restrict KKR to a paltry 108/9 to cruise to a seven-wicket win in the first leg in Chennai.

"It'll be interesting to see what the Master in Dhoni goes with tomorrow. He seems to be pulling the right strings at the right time," Katich said.

"He is so well prepared. There are a lot of thoughts put into the team. He's very clever in the way he uses his bowlers and field positions.

"We got completely outplayed in Chennai. But we feel our team suits the wicket as well with the quality spinners we've got. Unfortunately, we didn't adapt to the conditions in Chennai. We thought it was a 180-run wicket and it took us probably four overs to realise that and the game was done and dusted."

Katich said Dhoni's ploy to drop in-form Harbhajan Singh in favour of left arm spinner Mitchell Santner, who did well with the ball and hit a six off the last delivery to seal the win against Rajasthan Royals in CSK's last match, was a case in point.

"He did not play his in-form bowler Harbhajan because they (Royals) had five right handers in their top order. He brought in Santner who did a good job for them. He's (Dhoni) very clever in the way he goes about things and we probably need to take a leaf out of that book," Katich said.

--IANS

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