Kolkata Knight Riders on Saturday swept aside struggling Mumbai Indians to become the first team to reach the IPL playoffs. In the rain-curtailed match, KKR defended a total of 157 runs to win by 18 runs comfortably. KKR batter Nitish Rana, coming into the side for the first time in IPL 2024, played a crucial innings of 33 runs. Speaking after the match, he hailed the team effort, saying KKR are playing as a collective unit this year.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and chose to bowl first. The ball was seaming and Kolkata Knight Riders batters struggled to get going. However, Venkatesh Iyer’s 42 of 21 balls and Nitish Rana’s 33 of 23 balls helped reach 157. In reply, MI had a good start but faded out from the game to hand KKR the win.
‘Team management showed belief in me’
Nitish Rana showed his gratitude for the team management for the belief they showed in him.
“All credit to the team management. They showed tremendous belief in me by keeping me in the bench for 10 matches despite my injury. They knew I could make a positive impact even after 10 games. Luckily, my 33 runs were important on that stage because the ball was seaming and the wicket was helping fast bowlers,” he said.
KKR playing as a collective unit
He also credited Gautam Gambhir and Chandrakant Pandit for the making the side play as a collective unit.
“You have to play good cricket to win games for your team, not just against Mumbai Indians. The difference this year compared to other years is that we are playing as a collective unit. We trust and believe each other. The credit for this goes to Chandu sir (Chandrakant Pandit) and Gauti bhai (Gautam Gambhir). They have backed players and it’s bearing fruit,” Rana said.
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Russell the game-changer
West Indian all-rounder Andre Russell had a huge impact on the game, scoring 24 runs and taking two crucial wickets. Rana also heaped praise of Russell.
“Andre Russell is an asset for any team. When he fails with the bat, he wins matches with the ball and vice versa. We are lucky to have such a game-changer in our team,” he said.
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