Kolkata Knight Riders captain Shreyas Iyer rued the fact that the batting order couldn’t capitalize on the good start which was provided by Aaron Finch against Rajasthan Royals at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai on Monday after they lost by seven runs.
Rajasthan Royals posted the highest score of the season as they gathered 217 runs after Jos Buttler celebrated the 15th birthday of the IPL with his second century of the edition. Buttler was at his best and showed no mercy for the KKR bowlers. The Englishman made great use of the powerplay overs and added 97 runs for the opening alliance with Devdutt Padikkal.
Sanju Samson also scored a quickfire knock of 38 runs whereas Shimron Hetmyer added the finishing touches with an innings of 26 runs. On the other hand, Aaron Finch was able to hit the ground running as he scored 58 runs from 28 balls. But KKR lost the momentum in the middle overs as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals after the dismissal of Nitish Rana.
Shreyas Iyer scored a captain’s knock of 85 runs and he wanted to bat till the end, which couldn’t be the case as he was dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal, who snared five wickets, including a hat-trick.
In fact, KKR were ahead in the run-chase as they were able to keep the required run rate below 10 for the major part of the second innings but losing wickets at regular intervals led to their downfall.
Shreyas Iyer said in the post-match presentation, “I think from the start we got, we really were going well according to the run-rate. Finchy was good but once he was out, we slowed down a bit. We lacked a bit over there, but it’s a part of the game. Unfortunately, we couldn’t click. My plan was to bat through the end, the opposite batsman had to take it on from ball one. The matchup Rana had was with Chahal. He did not time that and it happens.
Showering praise on Jos Buttler, Iyer said, “He started a bit slow and after that he just went off. The way he maneuvers the ball, he is a classy batsman. Kudos to the way he batted. If we had got him out early, the scoreboard would’ve looked very different. Dew didn’t play a big role tonight. Amazing wicket to bat on. Unfortunately, Brabourne hasn’t been great for us. Hopefully, we will come back hard in the coming games. There is a lot of pressure and I love pressure. I just wanted to set an example, doesn’t matter whatever score they get. If they can get it, I can get it as well. That’s how I was thinking.”
KKR lost all of their last three matches at the Brabourne Stadium and they will look to bounce back stronger in the coming games. KKR will now shift base to Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy, where they will take on Gujarat Titans on Saturday.
