Eoin Morgan's Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captaincy debut went horribly wrong and he said his team weren't even in the race at any stage against defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI), who flexed their muscles to a thumping eight-wicket win in Abu Dhabi this Friday (October 16) in IPL 2020.
MI scored 149/2 in just 16.5 overs in response to KKR's 148/5. Barring Varun Chakravarthy (1/23), none of the KKR bowlers survived the onslaught against MI's Quinton de Kock (78), Rohit Sharma (35) and Hardik Pandya (21*).
In the first half, the MI bowlers made a mockery of the opposition top-order and it required a gutsy recovery act from Pat Cummins (53*) and Morgan himself (39*) to take KKR to their modest total.
Morgan felt his team had left too much ground to cover for themselves with a disappointing batting performance.
"We weren't in the race at all really, being four or five down. Managed to get a score on the board but when Mumbai play like that, they are hard to stop. Guys fought hard but just not enough runs on the board," he said at the post-match presentation ceremony, as quoted by ANI.
Morgan also explained the rationale behind why he came at No.5, a position below previous captain Dinesh Karthik, who although managed a half-century two games back, hasn't really found his best touch in the competition yet. Karthik managed only 4 runs off 8 deliveries before being bowled.
"No.4, 5, and 6 we have lot of experience. We're trying to adapt according to the situations. Given the match-ups, we are trying to play our best hand there. Today it didn't make that much of a difference; we were all in early," said the new captain.
KKR, currently fourth in the points table with four wins in eight outings, next face Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Abu Dhabi on Sunday (October 18).
