Dinesh Karthik took great liking of his team's overall performance this Saturday (September 26) in the win over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Abu Dhabi. But the skipper also said he realises he needs to contribute more with the bat if Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are to go the distance in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.
Karthik, who got out LBW for a duck off wrist-spinner Rashid Khan's googly, saw young Shubman Gill (70*) and Eoin Morgan (42*) make a good feast of the 143-run target, helping KKR win by seven wickets with still two overs to spare.
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Among T20 cricket's finest wicketkeeper batters around, Karthik had made a 23-ball 30 in the defeat against Mumbai Indians (MI) but was disappointed to have failed versus SRH.
"One duck doesn't make you a bad player. I need to probably up my game and get a few runs," Karthik said at the post-match presentation ceremony, as quoted by PTI.
From the team's perspective, he added, "Always good to get on board. We have been working really hard. I think one of the advantages of having all-rounders and it is a privilege to use them whenever I can."
Karthik was really pleased with the performance of his team's young guns. Apart from Gill, pacers Kamlesh Nagarkoti (0/17) and Shivam Mavi (0/15) also contributed nicely towards the win.
"The fact that we have been able to groom the youngsters is pleasing. It has been an emotional journey for us with (Kamlesh) Nagarkoti for the last couple of years."
"But credit to the management to have stuck to him. It feels good to see the youngsters doing well. I want Gill to enjoy his journey in cricket," said Karthik.
SRH captain David Warner said his team needed to be more urgent with their run-scoring through the middle-overs and should've posted a total more defendable than 142/4. While Warner (36) and Manish Pandey (51) did well, SRH's middle-order struggled once again, as KKR's Pat Cummins (1/19), Varun Chakravarthy (1/25) and others kept a tight leash right throughout.
"I think I got my decision (at the toss of batting first) right. For us, our strength is death bowling. I thought it was actually a difficult wicket to accelerate on. The Kolkata boys showed us that if you can keep wickets at the end, that's what wins you games," said Warner.
"I don't regret what I did at the beginning of the game and I stick by my decision. Patty Cummins, as he does, (bowled) Test match line and length. There was a little bit of movement here and there."
"We went four or five overs for 20 and coming back with three wickets in hand at the end probably killed us a little bit there. An extra 30 or 40 runs would have been great."
"We have to try and go harder at the top. Can't help if the bowlers are bowling good lines and lengths. We need to push as hard as we can," he added.
"You can see from our running between the wickets, we do do that. But, we got to improve our boundary percentage. I saw, I think 35 dot balls, which not acceptable in T20 cricket on a wicket that was actually nice to bat on."
Pandey went off the ground after looking in discomfort while fielding. Warner, on being asked about it, said: "Not sure (how bad it is). Hopefully, bit of a cramp."
