Lucknow, May 4: After winning on Sunday to move atop the points table, captain Shreyas Iyer stated that, despite losing most of their IPL innings thus far, the Kolkata Knight Riders had managed to win the games that count.
Despite Iyer losing his eighth wicket in 11 games, KKR’s performance was unaffected as they collected 235 for six after the Lucknow Super Giants put them in to bat.
The Iyer-led team then easily defeated the hosts for 137 to keep moving closer to the playoffs.
“We are losing tosses, but we are winning games, that’s what matters,” Iyer said at the post-game presentation. “The last six matches in the dressing room there has been havoc, teammates are coming in and asking skip what’s happening.”
“We started the powerplay off really well. The opposition finds it challenging when there is a left-right combination. It all comes down to the ability to express oneself freely.
“No matter what the circumstances, we want to go out and be positive; sometimes things don’t work out, but sometimes they do.” Before the bowlers did their part to stymie a crushing victory, opener Sunil Narine hammered an unbeaten 81 off 39 balls.
The do-or-die scenario will benefit LSG, as the captain KL Rahul insisted, and the team needs to win its final three games to push for a play-off position.
When facing strong hitters like Sunil and others, we have committed a few errors. Our bowlers are under pressure from that kind of intimidation. That’s the conversation we’ll have when we return to the dressing room: let’s get past this match, analyse our mistakes, and work to improve.
“We will be travelling for the next three games as this is our final home game. We think it’s very obvious that winning every game is necessary to advance to the top four. As a result, we will have a little more leeway to confront the game with a little bit more bravery and fearlessness,” Rahul remarked. PTI BS APA APA