Mumbai: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Eoin Morgan had a tough time on the field against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) after they lost a thriller to Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday. Despite loosing their third match in a row Morgan was not cynical about KKR’s performance.
Kolkata Knight Riders lost the match to Chennai Super Kings by 18 runs. CSK posted a gigantic total of 220-3 batting first. KKR were 31 for 5 chasing 221 before Andre Russell and Pat Cummins along with Dinesh Karthik produced a fightback to reduce the margin of loss. While Morgan’s captaincy tactics were utterly ineffective, his batting didn’t do wonders.
“The pulse rate is quite high at the moment. What a hell of a game of cricket. Certainly from the position we were in after our powerplay, we probably didn’t think we’d get as close as we did,” Morgan said on Star Sports after the match.
“But Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik really did put a partnership together, once you do that taking advantage of the conditions here, it’s very difficult to stop. A partnership going in that manner and then following that Pat Cummins the way he played really gave us every chance towards the end.”
“Everybody should leave the ground today on a positive note. This match reiterates we’re never out of any game.”
– @Eoin16‘s dressing room chat after #KKRvCSK 🗣️👊🏼#KKRHaiTaiyaar #IPL2021 https://t.co/2huFtmtkVE
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 22, 2021
The 34 year old heaped praise on his team’s middle-order batsmen for their tremendous efforts, who nearly pulled off the second highest successful run chase in IPL history.
“Tremendous fight from our middle and lower order which is all you can ask for when you lose wickets upfront like that. The first five overs of our batting didn’t go our way. We didn’t play as well as would have liked. If we had built a partnership and taken advantage of those early overs going into those middle overs, we would have been in a really strong position,” Morgan signed off.
