Chennai, (Samajweekly) Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Eoin Morgan was all praise for his top order batsmen after their 10-run win over SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their first game of the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL).
“Today was quite magnificent the way the guys at the top of the order batted. Nitish (Rana) and (Rahul) Tripathi were absolutely outstanding and set up the game for our middle order to play in the manner we want to play,” said Morgan in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Rana scored 80 off 56 balls and Tripathi scored 53 off 29 and their 93-run partnership for the second wicket, which came in just 50 balls, propelled KKR to 187/6. SRH were restricted to 177/5.
Morgan also hailed the bowling unit for the kind of start they gave to their defence. “Certainly the bowling, we couldn’t have asked for a better start. Chopped and changed a bit in the powerplay. Huge amount of structure that goes into the decisions on the field. We have got a fantastic head coach in (Brendon) McCullum,” said Morgan.
“Main job is to get the best out of the squad. IPL is all about the results and that comes when guys buy into what we want to do,” he further said.
Veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh made his debut for KKR in the match and only bowled the first over. However, he almost got the wicket of Warner and conceded eight runs.
“Bhajji starting really well in the first over and then not playing a part but using his experience to get around the guys in the game shows the selflessness in the side. Nice to start like this it’s obviously a long tournament. We were very happy with the score. We thought if we bowled half-decently we should get over the line,” said Morgan.
