Chennai: Opener Nitish Rana (80) and Rahul Tripathi (53) hit fluent half-centuries to script Kolkata Knight Riders’ a comfortable 10-run win against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Indian Premier League match, here on Sunday.SRH’s Rashid Khan (2/24) was yet again at his best, asking tough questions to the KKR batsmen but most of his bowling colleagues proved ineffective on a slow yet decent batting wicket.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain David Warner said that the team failed to execute their plans while bowling and ended up conceding too many runs towards the end of the Kolkata Knight Riders (SRH) innings on Sunday.
I didn’t think there were that many runs on this wicket. They adapted really well, they had a fantastic partnership over there. We failed to execute the first ball of most overs and then conceded a lot at the end, said Warner after the match.
The dew made a difference. If the bowlers overpitched, it was easy to hit it, and with the height in their team, and with the cross-seam, it stopped a little bit on us. We would like to have won the first game, but we have four more games at this venue and hopefully we will get used to the square and the dimensions of this ground, said Warner.
Winning captain, Morgan, said, ‘ Delighted. Build up to the tournament has been pretty good. The camp that we had pre-tournament, the guys gelled well. Never quite sure what performance they will produce. 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. Wouldn’t say that (the stamp of Morgan in KKR’s performance today?). Huge amount of structure that goes into the decisions on the field. Have got a fantastic head coach in McCullum. Great back room staff. Main job is to get the best out of the squad. IPL is all about the results. 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. 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.’
Rana, Player of the Match, said, ‘ I thought the ball was in my slot so I went for it and luckily got four off my first ball. In my mind there’s only one thing: play my shots if the ball is there. Just backed myself. Have played a lot of spin growing up.’