Kolkata Knight Riders’ skipper Eoin Morgan lauded his team after a clutch win against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opening night of the VIVO Indian Premier League 14. David Warner won the toss and elected to bowl first in the spinner’s favouring track of MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
IPL 2021: Eoin Morgan applauds his players
Nevertheless, KKR’s batsman didn’t succumb to the pressure of high-end SRH bowlers like Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. KKR’s batsmen Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi carried their side to a favourable total in the first innings. Nitish Rana scored 80 runs off just 56 balls and Rahul Tripathi clinched a quick fifty in just 29 deliveries. Dinesh Karthik played a crucial cameo of 9-ball 22 runs to help KKR reach the defendable total of 188 runs.
SRH fell short of 10 runs while chasing. Eoin Morgan was pleased with the win, which also marked KKR’s 100th IPL win. The English skipper praised his batsmen and also had few good words for Indian veteran Harbhajan Singh.
“We’re blessed that we have 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,” Morgan said at the post-match presentation.
“Delighted with the win,” he said. “Build up to the tournament has been pretty good. In the camp that we had pre-tournament, the guys gelled well but never quite sure what performance they will produce in the match. 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.
“Certainly the bowling, we couldn’t have asked for a better start. Chopped and changed a bit in the powerplay. There’s a huge amount of structure that 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. “Nice to start like this it’s obviously a long tournament. We were very happy with the score. We thought if we bowled half-decently we should get over the line.”
