Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Eoin Morgan was disappointed with his team’s narrow defeat from a winning position against Mumbai Indians (MI) in their second match in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Tuesday (April 13).
In the thrilling IPL 2020 encounter, Andre Russell's five-wicket haul had bundled Mumbai Indians (MI) out for 152 after Suryakumar Yadav's gutsy knock (56 runs off 36 balls), but chasing 153 for the victory, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) were restricted to just 142/7 despite Nitisha Rana’s another stunning fifty.
Except for Shubman Gill (33) and Nitish Rana (57), none of the other KKR batsmen could face more than 15 balls as Rahul Chahar’s four-wicket haul and Trent Boult’s two wickets help MI to beat the two-time IPL champions by 10 runs in the IPL 14 game on Tuesday in Chennai.
Morgan told host broadcaster Star Sports after the defeat: “Yeah, it's disappointing. A lot of the time we played good cricket, certainly the first half and a majority of the chase. We made mistakes, hopefully, we can iron them out. Mumbai is a very good side.”
He further explained, “I think the perfect game is to be able to do both (all-out attack and otherwise) and we've managed to do neither in the end. It works for us a majority of the time, but we need to be better.
We needed to bat around and complete the chase - not quite sure what happened (speaking if the pitch tended to go slow in the second innings), in the games that have been played so far, barring AB de Villiers in the chase, that seems to be telling a tale (of teams struggling in the run-chase).”
Morgan signed off by saying, “We put ourselves in a good position to win today, but then not to win, that's something we need to take care of.”
Noteworthy, KKR will next face Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL 2021 on Sunday (April 18).
(With ANI Inputs)
