Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) started well in their second game against the defending champions Mumbai Indians where they successfully restricted them within 152. This came on the back of some stunning shows from the bowlers, including Andre Russell’s fifer. While chasing, both their openers Shubman Gill (33) and Nitish Rana (57) gave a flying start but they eventually failed to win in the end, which didn’t go down well with many including Virender Sehwag.
Nitish Rana got out on the last delivery of the 15th over when they needed 31 runs off 30 balls. Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan came in the middle and joined the vice-captain Dinesh Karthik and the finisher Andre Russell too was yet to come at that point. But they managed only 20 runs in the last 5 overs and lost three wickets as Mumbai Indians snatched the victory from the jaw of defeat as well. And, Dinesh Karthik remained not out on 8 off 11 balls.
Former India player Virender Sehwag has lashed out at KKR for the defeat and also raised questions on Andre Russell and Dinesh Karthik’s intent as well.
“Eoin Morgan had given a statement that they will play that way (with postive intent) after the first game but it didn’t look like that when Andre Russell and Dinesh Karthik came in to bat. The way Russell and Karthik batted, it felt like they planned to take the game till the end and win it. But that didn’t happen. The batters who came before them be it Shakib Al Hasan, Eoin Morgan, Shubman Gill or Nitish Rana all of them played with positive intent,” Sehwag told Cricbuzz.
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“Either Rana or Gill should have batted till the end. They had seen what had happened in the MI innings, despite getting off to a good start they could only manage 152. Kolkata Knight Riders just lost the game which was almost won at one stage. When Russell came into bat, KKR needed 30 runs in 27-odd balls. Dinesh Karthik batted till the end but couldn’t win the game. That’s a shameful defeat,” he again shared.
“The runs per ball difference wasn’t much except for the last couple of overs. We saw how to lose a game that is almost won. You hardly get any game where you are chasing 152 and you need to score 36-odd runs in 6 overs with 6-7 wickets in hand. In such scenarios, teams prefer to end the game quickly to improve their net run rate. But KKR failed to do that and hampered their net-run rate,” Virender Sehwag concluded.
KKR will next play against Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Sunday, April 18.
