Nitish Rana was a disappointed captain as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) suffered a 49-run thrashing at the hands of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Eden Gardens on Sunday (April 23).

Asked to bat first, CSK piled up a mammoth 235/4 in their allotted 20 overs on the back of Ajinkya Rahane’s whirlwind 29-ball 71 and vital half-centuries from Shivam Dube (50 off 21) and Devon Conway (56 off 40).

In reply, the hosts got off to a terrible start as they lost both their openers, Sunil Narine (0) and N Jagadeesan (1), with just one run on the board. Venkatesh Iyer (20) and Rana (27) also fell after getting set as KKR slumped to 70/4.

Batting at No. 5, Jason Roy kept the Knight Riders in the chase with a brutal knock of 61 in 26 balls but his dismissal was the final nail in the coffin. While Rinku Singh kept the fight going with an unbeaten knock of 53 in 33 balls, he didn’t get support from the other end as KKR’s innings was restricted to 186/8.

Speaking after the game, Nitish Rana said it was difficult to digest being taken for 235 runs on a pitch like Eden Gardens.

"Need to give credit to Jinks for carrying out whatever he was attempting. It's difficult to digest being taken for 235 runs on that pitch. We have not been improving in the tournament," Rana said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

It was KKR’s fourth successive defeat in the IPL 2023 and they are currently languishing at the eighth spot on the points table featuring 10 teams.

The skipper expressed his frustration over the fact that they are not learning from their mistakes.

"If we keep repeating our mistakes in such a big tournament against big teams, you are going to be behind. We needed to have a good start [in the powerplay] chasing such a big score, but couldn't get it and we were always behind in the game," Rana added.

Kolkata Knight Riders will next face Royal Challengers Bangalore at Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 26.