Why Karthik Gave KKR a Public Dressing-Down During KXIP Match

A furious Dinesh Karthik was seeing giving the KKR squad a public dressing-down during their IPL match against KXIP.

A furious Dinesh Karthik was seeing giving the Kolkata Knight Riders squad a public dressing-down.

(Photo: BCCI)

It was sometime after the first Strategic Timeout, that a furious Dinesh Karthik was seeing giving the Kolkata Knight Riders squad a public dressing-down on the field on Friday, 3 May.

KKR had dismissed KL Rahul (2) and Chris Gayle (14) cheaply, and managed to restrict KXIP to 41/2 in their Powerplay overs during the crucial Indian Premier League match, but skipper Karthik seemed quite disappointed.

After their 7-wicket win over R Ashwin’s KXIP that helped them stay alive in the playoffs race, captain Karthik revealed that it was the attitude of the boys that had been irking him.

“I wasn’t too happy with the body language of the bowlers and fielders, the kind of things I didn’t expect from them. I’m not someone who is too into the results, but I always focus on the processes. I wasn’t too happy with what was happening, so I thought I had to let the boys know what I felt at that time.”

Dinesh Karthik

The usually calm 33-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman said his outburst was a ‘little rare’.

“I think till now not many people have seen it but at the end of the day it’s important that I stay true to myself. If I feel I need to be angry and show it to the boys, and if that’s going to get the best out of them, then maybe,” he added.

Chasing a target of 184, young Shubman Gill showed his range on his 'home turf' with an attractive 65 not out off 49 balls anchoring the chase after Chris Lynn (46 off 22 balls) set the pace with some big hits in the Powerplay overs.

In the post-match presentation, Lynn also commented on Karthik’s little meltdown. “Yeah he lost his marbles there! Yeah no, that's DK. We've learnt to live with that over the last couple of weeks. We responded well as a group, took some wickets and pulled the game back,” he said.