Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Shreyas Iyer opened up about the loss his team faced in the game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. He said that he is glad that their batting failed at the start of the tournament.
After bagging three consecutive wins in the IPL 2024, Kolkata Knight Riders finally had a taste of defeat in the tournament. Chennai Super Kings outclassed them by 7 wickets at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai to mark their third win of the season in five games.
Kolkata Knight Riders had a torrid outing with the bat as they managed just 137 runs on the board. Skipper Shreyas Iyer was the top run-getter for his team as he scored 34 runs. Sunil Narine (27) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (24) were the other top scores and apart from the trio batter could go past the 15-run mark.
With the ball, they couldn’t pick wickets quickly, which was the need of an hour for them. CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (67*) played a vital hand and took the game away from the opposition. They chased the target with 7 wickets in the game and 14 balls to spare.
Shreyas Iyer admitted that they failed to assess the conditions after the powerplay, which was phenomenal for them. The Kolkata Knight Riders skipper praised Chennai Super Kings bowlers for executing their plans and not allowing them to construct the innings. Speaking to broadcasters, he explained:
“It’s deafening out here, but I’ll try to express. We got a phenomenal start in the powerplay, but we lost consecutive wickets. We weren’t able to assess the conditions quickly after the powerplay, scoring runs wasn’t easy.
“They (CSK) know the conditions pretty well, they bowled according to their plans. Wasn’t easy (for the new batters) to go after them from the first ball. We were trying to construct the innings, but it didn’t fall in place according to the plan.”
We need to analyze the situations and need to make the best use of it – Shreyas Iyer
Shreyas Iyer further stated that after that powerplay they backed themselves to get a total of 160-70 but they lost the momentum. He accepted the defeat with his head high, saying that they will go back to the drawing board as they need to asses conditions well. He elaborated:
“The wicket changed after the powerplay. We were in a comfortable place and we thought 160-170 was a good score, but we lost momentum. We have to go back to the drawing board and got to learn from that.
“I am glad this happened at the start of the tournament. When we go back, we know our home conditions pretty well. We need to analyze the situations and need to make the best use of it.”
Kolkata Knight Riders will be next seen in action when they take on Lucknow Super Giants in their home game on Sunday (14th April).
