All-rounder Andre Russell blamed the Chepauk pitch after Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) suffered a 10-run defeat while chasing the target of 153 against Mumbai Indians (MI) on Tuesday (April 13).
Knight Riders were cruising in the chase as the duo of Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana put on 72 runs for the opening wicket. However, leg-spinner Rahul Chahar (4-27) changed the course of the game by reducing KKR to 122/4, removing Gill (33), Rana (57), Rahul Tripathi (5) and Eoin Morgan (7) in quick succession.
Needing just 31 runs from the last 5 overs, Russell (9 off 15 balls) and Dinesh Karthik (8* off 11 balls) faltered big time as Jasprit Bumrah (0-28) and Trent Boult (2-27) bowled remarkably well in the death overs to restrict KKR to 142/7.
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"It's a difficult wicket to bat on, it was not easy for a new batter to come in and start hitting from ball one. It's very challenging," Russell said at the post-match virtual interaction.
"Even for me, the ball was a bit up and down so it's not the easiest pitch to hit on. No matter how good you are, you still need a couple of balls to actually get your eyes in.
"Unfortunately, a good finisher like myself and DK, we didn't get bat to balls. I think if we did get a few boundaries the game would be over. We definitely feel disappointed but at the end of the day, it's not the end of the road. It's our second game," he added.
Russell hoped to learn from the mistakes and asserted that KKR will bounce back strongly in the coming matches.
"We're gonna go back to the drawing board. We definitely are playing some good cricket as a team. It's about moving on from this game and going from strength to strength."
When KKR were needed boundaries, Russell was seen blocking Krunal Pandya in the 17th over and he also got a reprieve as the left-arm spinner spilled a simple catch in his follow-through.
"We don't try to do the wrong thing all the time, but it just happened you know. It's bat and ball, sometimes it goes your way sometimes it doesn't...I was looking to rotate the strike, not allow too many dot balls. I didn't get any runs and that added a bit of pressure on me," Russell remarked.
KKR will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their next game on Sunday (April 18) in Chennai.
(With PTI inputs)
