RR defeated KKR by 7 runs in a high-scoring thriller at Brabourne Stadium.
Riding on Jos Buttler’s swashbuckling century (103 off 61 balls) and Yuzvendra Chahal’s five-wicket haul (5/40), which also included a hat-trick, RR defeated KKR by 7 runs in a high-scoring thriller at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai.
"With four overs to go, we were in the driver's seat but then some silly mistakes and not being able to handle pressure as well as we should have cost us the game. From our point of view, we've had three losses in a row and we're going to have to find a way to keep our morale high which is so vitally important," said McCullum in a post-match press conference.
"There can be a tendency to run away from things when you haven't got across the line in a couple of key games. We just have to keep pushing ourselves, make sure we stick together and stay composed. We've been there before and it's going to test us again this time," he added.
Chasing 218 to win, KKR lost Narine on the very first delivery for a duck but the duo of Aaron Finch and captain Shreyas Iyer added 107 runs for the second wicket to keep the team very much in the contest
Prasidh Krishna broke the partnership by dismissing Finch on 58 off 28 balls. While Shreyas continued to attack the Rajasthan bowlers, Knight Riders kept losing wickets in quick succession. The likes of Nitish Rana (18), Andre Russell (0), and Venkatesh (6) failed to make a mark with the bat.
Thanks to Shreyas Iyer, KKR were still in the chase with 40 needed off the last four overs with 6 wickets in hand. However, Chahal changed the course of the match in the 17th over as he took four wickets, including a hat-trick with the successive dismissals of Shreyas (85 off 51 balls), Shivam Mavi (0), and Pat Cummins (0).
"We were trying to hold Pat Cummins for the seamers. Chahal has had a number on him on a number of occasions. Mavi's role was to get through that. Unfortunately, we weren't able to execute what we were meant to do there and we made a mistake. You can't allow good players like Chahal to enter the game when there's pressure on. We played a good game but just made a couple of silly mistakes. But that's what happens sometimes. Jos Buttler got a hundred on their side, Yuzi Chahal got a five-for including a hat-trick and we lost by seven runs, so we played a good game but ran second," said the KKR coach.
"We had talked extensively leading into the game about how he was such a threat and we didn't want to give him wickets in key moments in games. If we had our time again, we'd have looked to play that over differently and we saw the impact he can have against the seamers in the last couple of overs with the ball sliding on," he added.
In the death overs, Umesh Yadav produced a dazzling cameo (21 off 9 balls) for KKR but it wasn’t enough. RR debutant Obed McCoy removed Sheldon Jackson and Umesh in the last over to bundle out the Knight Riders for 210 with two balls still left in the innings.
(With ANI inputs)