It was another forgettable outing for Kolkata Knight Riders as it lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets in the wee hours of Sunday.
But KKR captain, Dinesh Karthik, believes there are quite a few positives to take away from the rain-interrupted fixture.
Read: Bowlers, Williamson secure third straight win
Excerpts…
On whether rain-break was a factor behind KKR losing the momentum?
I don’t think you can put it totally to that. But at that point, we were getting some good rhythm and that kind of broke. We went in again and it worked in their favour, more than us.
On why was debutant Shubman Gill brought in at No. 7 in the batting order?
Look, as a team we understand he is a top-order batsman. But you got to understand the dynamics of the team as well. With Robin (Uthappa), Nitish (Rana) and myself there, we thought we will send him in a middle-order role where he doesn’t need to go and build an innings. He can just go and express himself. That was the whole logic behind sending him (at No 7). It is going to be little hard at this stage to send him to bat higher up the order. He is happy to bat at this spot.
On it is time to look at the bowlers’ lengths a little bit?
SRH bowlers have a good knuckle ball going. They use it to a good effect. That’s something we can look at and learn.
On whether Shivam Mavi was introduced quite late in the innings?
I was looking at Mavi, but at that stage the spinners were bowling so well. I could see spinners were a better wicket-taking option than the fast bowlers. It was coming on to the bat a lot better, but for the spinners, it was holding up and the chance of a wicket (was more), so I was trying to utilise that. In these sort of small games, you need to see what the best attacking option is. You need to keep picking wickets and I thought spinners were a better option.
In hindsight, could he have started with Mavi and Mitchell Johnson instead of Andre Russell?
Andre has been working up good pace in the last two games, so I don’t think I regret that.
On what are the positives from the Sunrisers game?
I think the spinners bowled beautifully. After the CSK game, the way they have come back (is good). All three bowled well for us, so I am very happy with way the spinners bowled.
On whether he is thinking of changing the opening partnership?
It’s a bit of a mix and match. We decided at the start of the season that we won’t be sending Sunil to open throughout. At times, we want to use him as a floater. They have a couple of good spinners, so we had that as a plan and we used it. He won’t be opening throughout the season.
On what led to Kamlesh Nagarkoti’s ouster?
It is stress related reaction in his foot. He was feeling the pain, so we assessed it and the physio went for a scan.
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