Kolkata Knight Riders captain Eoin Morgan feels he can’t fault anything from his side after suffering their first loss of the second phase of the IPL 2021 against Chennai Super Kings at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi.
CSK won the thrilling contest by two wickets as they chased 172 runs after Deepak Chahar hit the winning runs for the MS Dhoni-led team.
Four runs were needed off the final over when Sunil Narine got two wickets and conceded three runs off the first five balls. However, Chahar kept his nerves to get his team over the line on the last ball.
On the other hand, KKR was able to post a par score of 171 runs after Rahul Tripathi scored 45 runs whereas Nitish Rana scored 37 runs. Moreover, Dinesh Karthik added the finishing touches for KKR as he played a nice little cameo of 11-ball 26. KKR were on top of the match till the 18th over as 26 runs were needed off the final two overs. However, Jadeja was able to turn the tables for CSK with his blistering batting.
“Both sides batted and bowled well. Both bowled really well. I can’t fault anything from our side. The second half of the tournament has been a lot of positives for our side. We just have to give ourselves the best chance,” said Eoin Morgan in the post-match presentation ceremony.
In fact, Ravindra Jadeja played a crucial role in CSK’s win as he smashed 22 runs off the penultimate over which was bowled by Prasidh Krishna. Furthermore, Jadeja scalped one wicket and conceded only 21 runs in his quota of four overs. Thus, he was awarded the Player of the Match. Morgan added there is not a lot which his team could have done differently when Jadeja batted like that.
“Sunil takes the responsibility [for the final over, so Prasidh Krishna bowled the 19th over]. I hope Dre [Andre Russell] is okay. The whole tournament has an abundance of top-class international cricketers. But when Jadeja plays like that, similar to Sam Curran for England, I don’t think there’s a lot to do.”
KKR had to cope with their first loss of the second phase and they will aim to get back to winning ways when they will next face Delhi Capitals at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on 28th September.
