It was a compact performance from Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday as they came over some early setback in the first innings to put on a near-perfect show in the bowling against Rajasthan Royals to pick their second consecutive win in the IPL 2020.
Much of the praise goes to Kamlesh Nagarkoti, who took two years to make his debut for the franchise few days, earlier and has now grown from strength to strength to produce a spell of 13 runs for 2 wickets to push RR out of the game while chasing a modest 175.
The pacer, who took his two scalps from the first four balls of the match, saw the side reduced to 42/5 by the eighth over, breaking RR’s backbone.
Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, Nagarkoti took the opportunity to thank, among other people, Indian batting great and former U-19 coach Rahul Dravid, under who they won the 2018 U-19 World Cup.
“I want to thank my family, the KKR support staff and everyone else who have stood by me. Many people like my family, Dravid Sir, Abhishek (Nayar) bhaiyya. There have been so many people to thank. It’s a nice experience to learn from Pat Cummins who is a really good bowler. I try to execute what I learn from him,” said Nagarkoti.
It won’t be wrong to say that Dravid shares special bond with under-19 and India A players who played under him during his tenure as head coach of both the sides.
In fact, in a chat with BBC on Wednesday RR batsman Sanju Samson revealed how closely Dravid worked with the young players who calls him for more advice.
