MI vs KKR: Ahead of Kolkata Knight Riders clash against Rohit Sharma led Mumbai Indians, Nitish Rana said that he has confident in his bowlers ability despite there horrible performance against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Last night, KKR apart Harry Brook and co take their bowlers apart. Narine was the only bowler who had an economy of under 10. Despite the abysmal peeformace, Rana firmly backed his bowlers, saying the same bowlers would deliver for him in the upcoming matches. Follow Indian Premier League 2023 Live Updates on InsideSport.IN
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Nitish Rana on his bowlers
“I know the same bowling set-up will deliver and win you matches. We can do better as a bowling unit,” Rana said at the post-match media interaction.
Barring the Caribbean duo of Andre Russell (3/22 from 2.1 overs) and Sunil Narine (28 runs from his four overs), all other KKR bowlers were taken to the cleaners.
“Yes, we had our plan in place against Brook. We could execute 60-70 per cent of our plans. You have to give credit to the batter (Brook), but as I said we could have done better.”
🗣Nitish Rana: “But credit must also be given to Harry Brook. He played a devastating innings.”
— KnightRidersXtra (@KRxtra) April 15, 2023
Rookie leg-spinner Suyash Sharma and Varun Chakravarthy leaked 85 runs together.
“Suyash (Sharma), Varun (Chakravarthy) and Sunil (Narine) may not have clicked together today. But they will come out good in coming matches,” Rana said, firmly backing them.
Rana top-scored for KKR with a 41-ball 75, while Rinku Singh remained unbeaten on 58 (31 balls) as they managed 205 for seven.
“To chase 229 is very tough in T20 cricket on any wicket. And when you lose three wickets inside the powerplay, you always are behind. There is a lot to learn and deliver. We will sit together and discuss,” the KKR captain said.
It was a big total to chase, but I wanted to take the game deep with Rinku Singh, we had the belief somewhere. Rinku had done that in the previous match too. As a batter, you must have belief.”
Top-order batting not a concern before MI vs KK
KKR’s top-order once again struggled to give a good start but Rana said there is nothing to worry about.
“We are playing with 7-8 batters and can add an extra batter with ‘Impact Player’ rule. Gurbaz, Venky (Iyer), myself all have scored fifties. Rinku batting well and we all know what Russell is capable of. The entire batting unit cannot click one day,” he said.
“It’s about somebody standing up and win you the match on a given day, that’s the sign of a good team. Today, I went with the mindset that I have the opportunity to score a hundred.
“There are a lot of positives, even as we ended up losing unfortunately. I don’t think we have to think much as a batting unit,” Rana said. “We took a gamble sending Narine up to build the innings. I had nothing to lose. I had the licence to go for it.”
Russell fitness ahead of MI vs KKR clash
KKR’s star all-rounder Andre Russell (3/22) delivered with the ball but limped off the field after bowling the first ball of his third over.
But Rana dismissed any injury concern to Russell, who came out to bat and got out for 3. “Russell doesn’t have any injury. He developed cramps. It was 42 degrees in the afternoon and he had dehydration,” he said.
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