Kolkata Knight Riders captain Shreyas Iyer hailed the collective team effort after they became the first team to qualify for the playoffs in the ongoing Indian Premier League 2024. KKR registered their ninth win of the season as they defeated a flat Mumbai Indians unit by 18 runs in a truncated 16-over contest at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Saturday.
KKR posted a par score of 157 runs on the board after Hardik Pandya decided to bowl first. After losing their openers – Phil Salt and Sunil Narine – cheaply, Venkatesh Iyer played a counter-attacking knock of 42 runs off just 21 balls.
Nitish Rana, playing his first match after missing the last 10, scored 33 off 23 before he was run out. Andre Russell scored 24, Rinku Singh added 20 whereas Ramandeep Singh once again added the finishing touches with a little cameo of 7-ball 18 to help KKR post 157 runs on the board.
Thus, KKR came up with a collective batting effort, and then their bowlers restricted MI to 139-6.
MI got off to a flying start with Ishan Kishan doing the bulk of the damage in the first five overs. The visitors posted 59 runs in the field restrictions but KKR bounced back strongly. Varun Chakravarthy was the pick of the bowlers for KKR as he returned with impressive figures of 2-17 in his quota of four overs.
Furthermore, Harshit Rana and Andre Russell bagged two wickets each whereas Sunil Narine got the big wicket of Ishan Kishan.
Shreyas Iyer said in the post-match presentation, “ I think I manifested this before the game (on becoming the 1st side to qualify for the playoffs). Nerves were there, boys have been raising their hands and there have been many game-changers and kudos to each and every one of them. I feel whichever team plays the best, they got a great chance to win.”
He added, “They were going at great guns in the first 6 overs, and to bounce back from that situation it was nice to see. I wasn’t thinking about stats or records, the weather wasn’t great but we won the game and that’s what is more important. It’s all about understanding which bowler is doing well on that particular day, I feel both of them bowled well and my gut went with Varun (on bowling the 4th over) at that point and I backed him.”
Kolkata Knight Riders will next take on Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Monday.
