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Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) suffered an 18-run loss against Delhi Capitals (DC) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020, at Sharjah Cricket Ground on Saturday.
DC scored 228/4 in their allotted 20 overs and then restricted Knight Riders on 210/8. At one stage, KKR looked out of the competition as they lost their six wickets for 150 runs with 60 to win in last 4 overs.
However, things soon turned around when Eoin Morgan (44 off 18 balls) and Rahul Tripathi (36 off 16 balls) took the charge. The fireworks from both the batters brought hopes back to KKR camp as everyone out there felt that the two-time champions might chase down a mammoth 229 to create an IPL record.
But, unfortunately, it did not happen. A spectacular penultimate over from Anrich Nortje followed by a remarkable final over by Marcus Stoinis, guided DC to win the contest by 18 runs.
Morgan defends KKR management’s decision to send him down the order
KKR fans were furious with the decision to send Morgan very late in the chase. During the game, the English captain came to bat at number 6. However, Morgan has defended the team management’s decision.
The 34-year-old explained that they have quite a few match-winners and it’s not easy to go up the order in a big chase when a batsman like Andre Russell is sitting in the dugout. Morgan also mentioned that shifting in the batting order is a normal process, and everyone has to deal with it.
“When you look at our batting line-up, we have a number of match-winners, so it’s very difficult to go up the order, particularly when you have a world-class all-rounder in Andre Russell. He is an incredible striker, and when he comes up the order, obviously everybody else has to shift down a little bit,” said Morgan as quoted by Cricbuzz.
The Irish cricketer further heaped praises on DC bowling attack and admitted that despite his team’s effort in the latter half of the innings, the win for KKR was just not destined.
“We went from a position of being behind the 8-ball because Delhi bowled well, to a position of strength and looking like winning it. It just wasn’t meant to be,” added Morgan.
The Dublin-born cricketer also spoke about the batting order of Sunil Narine, who walks down as an opener and is being unsuccessful in IPL 2020 so far. Morgan said that Narine is a match-winner at the top of the order.
“Sunil is the type of player who can produce match-winning innings. It’s never been a string of scores, over the years, but more about his impact in a game. He always takes the positive option, which summarises how we want to play our cricket,” concluded Morgan.
