Eoin Morgan was an elated captain as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) opened their IPL 2021 campaign with a 10-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Sunday (April 11).
Invited to bat first, KKR posted 187/6 in 20 overs on the back of Nitish Rana’s 56-ball 80 and Rahul Tripathi’s 29-ball 53. Dinesh Karthik (22* off 9 balls) also made a significant contribution with the bat.
With the ball, Knight Riders managed to restrict Sunrisers to 177/5 despite half-centuries from Manish Pandey (61* off 44 balls) and Jonny Bairstow (55 off 40 balls).
Prasidh Krishna (2-35), Shakib-Al-Hasan (1-34), Pat Cummins (1-30) and Andre Russell (1-32) were among the wickets for KKR.
"Delighted. The build-up to the tournament has been pretty good. The camp that we had pre-tournament, the guys gelled well. Never quite sure what performance they will produce. Today was quite magnificent the way the guys batted. Guys at the top of the order. Nitish and Tripathi were absolutely outstanding and set up the game for our middle order to play in the manner we want to play," Morgan said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
"Certainly the bowling, we couldn't have asked for a better start. Chopped and changed a bit in the powerplay. Wouldn't say that. A huge amount of structure goes into the decisions on the field. Have got a fantastic head coach in McCullum. Great backroom staff. The main job is to get the best out of the squad. IPL is all about the results. Guys buying into what we want to do. 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," he added.
Commenting further on the batting performance of his team, Morgan said: "We were very happy with the score. We thought if we bowled half-decently we should get over the line."
Kolkata Knight Riders will take on defending champions Mumbai Indians in their next game on Tuesday (April 13) at Chepauk.
(With ANI inputs)
