It was a match between two teams who had nothing to lose as they both were already at the bottom of the charts. Kolkata Knight Riders & Punjab Kings gave everything to the match but at the end, KKR stole the win from Punjab & ended the losing streak. Kolkata defeated Punjab by 5 wickets. KKR, before the clash was at the bottom of the table but now, they have definitely jumped to the fifth spot before Punjab which is on 6th.
However, during the clash, KKR analyst Nathan Leamon was seen with a cryptic placard reading ’54’ during the middle overs of Punjab Kings’ batting. On-air commentators and fans had made far-fetched conjectures about what the code meant, but no one knows for sure.
Talking about the same code, Former Indian cricketer & commentator Virendera Sehwag said
“We have only seen such code language in the army. I think ’54’ was the name of their plan which could be about bowling a certain bowler at a particular time. I think that’s a little help that management and coaches want to give to the captain from the dugout. There’s nothing to frown upon in this, but if they are dictating [the game] from the outside then in this way, anyone can be the captain right? There’s no role left for his (Eoin Morgan) popular instinctive power in the game, the power with which he won the World Cup,”
Sehwag also tried to decode the code using his own logic & said
“I think one should definitely get help from outside but the captain himself has some instincts about which type of bowler to use when. I am not saying don’t take the help from outside because sometimes even the 25th player can give a good suggestion. But this suggestion should be only something which helps the captain and he thinks ‘Right, I didn’t think about it in this way’. Also, these things can help if he has forgotten something and the code reminds him of that then there’s no issue,”
No matter a secret code or not, KKR won the game & they will be looking forward to winning their next may be on the basis of the same strategy or a new code.