IPL 2021 | Those five dismissals earlier did cost us, says KKR captain Eoin Morgan
Kolkata Knight Riders came close to pulling off a stunning victory over the Chennai Super Kings from a virtually impossible position on Wednesday night. Reeling at 31/5 in a 221 run-chase, KKR eventually ended up at 202, falling only 18 runs short.
Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell and Pat Cummins starred with the bat for KKR to bring the side close to an incredible win.
In the post-match press conference, KKR captain Eoin Morgan said that the early five wickets came back to haunt the side even after the fight from the lower middle-order.
"You don't want to be picking too many early wickets. Big hitters coming in, 200 runs, there's only one way they'll play. Not much you can do," Morgan said.
"I wasn't worried about the net run rate (when we lost early wickets)," he stressed. "When you are five down, you are bothered about the result of the game and try and find a solution to try and put yourself in a winning position. Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell did that. Their partnership did turn the momentum and the fortune our way, considering the really bad start we had.
"The whole of the innings, we were up with where CSK were in the position in the first innings. But, those five mistakes earlier did cost us. We have to be proud of getting so close and putting ourselves in the winning position."
"Where we were after the powerplay and only falling short by 20 runs, you don't have to be an optimist to think that we would have been in a really good position if we batted better at the top of the order."
Morgan has had a quiet season with the bat so far, registering scores of 2, 7, 29 and 7 in four games so far. However, he is confident that a big knock is around the corner.
"Everything's about process," he pointed out. "I am going about things in an extremely positive way. I've been here a long time now. I was here on international duty a month pre-IPL. And I've practising well and it's only a matter of time before something comes together.
"The only thing matters in T20 cricket that you have 120 balls to make an influence on the game. Today, reflects that. We have a very deep batting line-up, it's our strength, lots of experience in that middle and lower-middle order and today we saw that."
