Kolkata Knight Riders slumped to their heaviest defeat in terms of runs on Wednesday against Mumbai Indians in an IPL league encounter at their home ground and it left their captain Dinesh Karthik admitting that he needs to stand up and raise the morale of this team. (IPL 2018 FULL COVERAGE | IPL 2018 POINTS TABLE)
Mumbai Indians produced a brilliant bowling and fielding performance after Ishan Kishan's batting pyrotechnics as they thrashed Kolkata Knight Riders by 102 runs to keep themselves in the hunt for a play-offs berth in the Indian Premier League. (KKR VS MI, HIGHLIGHTS)
Sent into bat at the Eden Gardens, defending champions MI scored an imposing 210 for 6, riding on 19-year-old Kishan's 21-ball 62, studded with five fours and six sixes, and then bowled KKR out for 108 in 18.1 overs. (Also Read: Shah Rukh Khan apologises to fans after KKR's loss)
Krunal Pandya and his brother Hardik returned with figures of 2/12 and 2/16 respectively while all the other five MI bowlers took a wicket each as they excelled as a bowling unit. (Also Read: 'Fearless' Ishan Kishan was the turning point, says Rohit Sharma)
MI jumped to fourth spot with 10 points from 11 matches. KKR also have the same 10 points from 11 matches but they are below MI at fifth on inferior net run rate.
Chasing an imposing target of 211, KKR suffered a batting collapse under some fine bowling and fielding show by MI who needed a win to keep afloat in the tournament.
Karthik said KKR players need to raise their levels.
"200 is always a big ask. We didn't bat well enough. If we had held on to our catches, you never know. It was a good batting wicket. When you lose wickets in the powerplay, you are always playing catch up.
"We weren't in the game after the powerplay. We just took it as a normal game. Chin up for the boys and keep moving forward. We need to raise our skill levels and that is the most important thing," Karthik said after the match.
Karthik also admitted that these kind of defeats 'can put the team down'.
"This kind of losses can put you down and that is where I as a leader need to stand up. Be honest about it. We need to believe and I have to make them believe we can make it to the playoffs," he said.
