Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Riders’ bowling unit might have failed miserably against Sunrisers Hyderabad but the losing side skipper Nitish Rana firmly backed his bowlers, saying the same set would deliver for him in the upcoming IPL matches.
Young English batter Harry Brook (100 not out of 55) overcame his lean patch, scoring his maiden and the season’s first century as SRH toyed with the KKR attack to post a mammoth 228 for 4, their second highest IPL total, en route to a 23-run win here on Friday.
“I know the same bowling set-up will deliver and win you matches. We can do better as a bowling unit,” Rana said at the post-match media interaction.
Barring the Caribbean duo of Andre Russell (3/22 from 2.1 overs) and Sunil Narine (28 runs from his four overs), all other KKR bowlers were taken to the cleaners.
“Yes, we had our plan in place against Brook. We could execute 60-70 per cent of our plans. You have to give credit to the batter (Brook), but as I said we could have done better.”
Rookie leg-spinner Suyash Sharma and Varun Chakravarthy leaked 85 runs together.
“Suyash (Sharma), Varun (Chakravarthy) and Sunil (Narine) may not have clicked together today. But they will come out good in coming matches,” Rana said, firmly backing them.
Rana top-scored for KKR with a 41-ball 75, while Rinku Singh remained unbeaten on 58 (31 balls) as they managed 205 for seven.
“To chase 229 is very tough in T20 cricket on any wicket. And when you lose three wickets inside the powerplay, you always are behind. There is a lot to learn and deliver. We will sit together and discuss,” the KKR captain said.
“It was a big total to chase, but I wanted to take the game deep with Rinku Singh, we had the belief somewhere. Rinku had done that in the previous match too. As a batter, you must have belief.”
KKR top-order batting not a concern
KKR’s top-order once again struggled to give a good start but Rana said there is nothing to worry about.
“We are playing with 7-8 batters and can add an extra batter with ‘Impact Player’ rule. Gurbaz, Venky (Iyer), myself all have scored fifties. Rinku batting well and we all know what Russell is capable of. The entire batting unit cannot click one day,” he said.
“It’s about somebody standing up and win you the match on a given day, that’s the sign of a good team. Today, I went with the mindset that I have the opportunity to score a hundred.
“There are a lot of positives, even as we ended up losing unfortunately. I don’t think we have to think much as a batting unit,” Rana said.
“We took a gamble sending Narine up to build the innings. I had nothing to lose. I had the licence to go for it.”
Russell had cramps, no injury issue
KKR’s star all-rounder Andre Russell (3/22) delivered with the ball but limped off the field after bowling the first ball of his third over.
But Rana dismissed any injury concern to Russell, who came out to bat and got out for 3.
“Russell doesn’t have any injury. He developed cramps. It was 42 degrees in the afternoon and he had dehydration,” he said.
Always knew Brook will deliver
SRH batter Abhishek Sharma was all praise for English sensation Brook, who finally delivered with an unbeaten century.
Brook, who was bought by SRH for a whopping Rs 13.25 crore, copped a lot of criticism after getting just 13, 3, 13 in his three innings this season.
“It was just a matter of time for him. I’ve seen him from U-19 days. We knew that he is capable of producing an innings like this,” Sharma said.
“He just plays his natural game and reacts to the ball be it in Tests and T20Is.”
He further said that it was their legendary coach Brian Lara’s decision to open with Brook.
“He can take any pace attack to the cleaners so the management decided him for the opener’s slot. It was Brian’s idea to bring him up and I go in the middle so that I can take on the spinners,” Sharma said.
