As Kolkata Knight Riders’ ‘mystery spinner’ Varun Chakravarthy dished out a five-for against Delhi Capitals on Saturday and guided his team to a convincing 59-run win, captain Eoin Morgan was all praise for the 29-year-old.
“He has gelled really well. He has been one of the positive stories out of our campaign so far. Until today, we felt we haven’t played our best cricket, but today, we were close to that,” Morgan said.
“The bowling group as a whole really did set off with Varun coming into the attack. Sunil (Narine) bowled well alongside our seamers. To come into the attack at a time when Delhi needed to move things along, he (Varun) bowled really really well,” the KKR captain said.
Nitish Rana’s 81 and Sunil Narine’s 32-ball 64 did help KKR put up a big total and the KKR captain was happy to see Narine back in form. “Sunil has been an integral part of the franchise for a long time,” he said, adding that this innings proved why the Trinidadian is such a key player for the team.
While Rana and Narine steadied the ship with a 115-run stand, it was also an emotional outing for Rana. He dedicated his half-century to his father-in-law, who died of cancer recently, by showing a jersey customised by KKR as a special tribute to him.
“It shows unbelievable character to come through adversity, particularly when it's family-based. We all know what Nitish was going through and has continued to grieve at the moment. But trying to channel what exactly he is planning to do and churning out runs is a huge credit to him,” Morgan said.
With the tournament reaching its business end, Morgan was excited to see Rana striking form.
“Nitish is a very talented young batsman, he showed a lot of promises in the previous IPLs and this year. Immediately he is probably not on what he would like to do. But now this can be a start to his campaign taking things forward. Today, against one of the best bowling line-ups in the tournament, he played absolutely well,” he said.
With this win, the Knights now have 12 points and are in the contention for a playoff berth in the Indian Premier League.
“There are a lot of positives for us as a team. It is probably our most complete performance as a group in this tournament. The timing could not have been any better,” Morgan said, admitting that the two points are extremely crucial at this juncture.
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