"I prefer not to speak. If I speak, I'm in big trouble," Jose Mourinho famously muttered after a narrow defeat for Chelsea in 2014. That had to do with the refereeing in that game against Aston Villa. On Tuesday, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane said pretty much the same thing. "Agar main kuch bolunga na toh bawal ho jayega" ("If I say anything, it'll create chaos)."
He didn't need to elaborate. After KKR fell short by just four runs in an IPL 2025 game where their spinners had little impact against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), the murmurs around the Eden Gardens surface, and whether it plays to the strengths of the home side, began swirling again.
"Let me just keep it that way. Jo humare curator hai, unko bahut publicity mila hai (this discussion has just given our curator a lot of publicity)," Rahane went on to add in the post-match press conference. "Whatever you'd like to write about home advantage, you can go ahead. If I have any concerns, I will talk to the IPL about it, rather than you guys, and discuss with the concerned authorities."
With 238 playing 234, bowlers of all kinds were clattered around the park, but for KKR to not use all eight overs of spin at home went against popular wisdom. Sunil Narine was hit for two fours and three sixes in his three-over wicketless spell of 38. The other spinners on view - Varun Chakravarthy, Digvesh Rathi and Ravi Bishnoi - did complete their overs.
Bishnoi, too, was hit for six fours and two sixes. While Varun and Rathi finished with their reputations intact, going at 7.75 and 9.25 respectively, and occasionally troubled the batters with their variations, there was little turn on offer in the afternoon game.
"Firstly, there was no help for the spinners, let me clear that," Rahane said when asked why Narine's quota was not completed. "They used the longer boundary really well. Our bowlers tried as well, but again, Nicholas Pooran (87* in 36 balls) and Mitchell Marsh (81 in 48) batted really well. In between, they took their chances, which came off really well for them. It was a lovely wicket [to bat on], we all saw that, scoring almost 500 runs [472] on this track. Hard for the bowlers, but they used the conditions and the boundary well."
Rahane said that the KKR bowlers had plan against Marsh and Pooran, especially keeping in mind the lopsided boundary dimensions for this game - 57 metres to one side, 70 metres to the other - but felt the bowlers failed to land the balls in the right areas.
"Sometimes what happens is, as a bowling unit, when we have that plan, it's all about execution, and that didn't happen tonight for us," Rahane said. "Against strong, quality players like Pooran and Marsh, as bowlers, there is very little margin of error. I thought our plans were perfect, but we couldn't nail that perfect yorker or wide slower ball. And they just capitalised on those slightly loose balls or easier balls."
Rahane, though, felt there were enough positives to take back despite their four-run defeat, especially with their powerplay batting. He scored 61 in 35 balls himself, and his shots alongside those of Narine (30 in 13) and Venkatesh Iyer (45 in 29) kept KKR in the contest - they were 90 for 1 after the first six overs, their second-best IPL powerplay performance.
"I thought we played really good cricket, you know. Chasing 239 and coming that close is never easy," Rahane said. "Everyone's intent and attitude was really positive when we came into the dressing room after 20 overs of bowling. And we thought we will chase it down. But these things happen, you know. When you're chasing, you will lose two-three wickets in between.
"I thought the way we started in the powerplay with Sunny's intent and Venkatesh Iyer's batting, their contribution was amazing. So we got more positives I feel. I always believe that whatever happened in this game, it's past now. As long as we are learning from our mistakes and the good things we have done, that's all."
KKR, now sixth on the points table with two wins in five games, next travel away to meet Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on April 11 in a short turnaround.