Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) point total may have increased to 12 after this season’s victory, but they still have a few obstacles to overcome in order to secure a postseason spot. Even the captain, Shreyas Iyer, is fully aware of it, as he said as much on Monday night at Eden Gardens following his team’s 7-wicket victory over the Delhi Capitals (DC).
The Knights’ openers were outstanding, and they maintained their domination at home. By hitting five sixes and seven fours in a 79-run opening wicket combination with Sunil Narine that came off just 38 balls, Phil Salt took advantage of a reprieve on 15 to smash a 33-ball 68. KKR improved their net run-rate to 1.096 after Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer finished the chase in 16.3 overs.
Shreyas Iyer wants his team to qualify as early as possible.
KKR captain Shreyas Iyer stated during the post-match press conference that the team has been closely monitoring the qualification scenario in an effort to qualify as soon as possible.
“We have always been looking at it, even from the first game. The mindset is to qualify as early as possible. Just work on our work ethic and processes, don’t want to look at the points table,” Iyer told the broadcasters.
On Kolkata’s two-paced wicket, the KKR batsmen did okay, with Salt setting the tone for the modest chase. Earlier, after Rishabh Pant chose to bat, Vaibhav Arora had a brilliant start (2/29), limiting Delhi to a modest 153/9. Chakravarthy (3/16) then excelled in the middle overs.
Heaping praise on both star performers, Iyer said, “After the powerplay, the pitch started helping the spinners, was tacky. We got a fair idea as to how it played and to tackle the tackiness.”
Shreyas Iyer on team meetings
Shreyas while speaking to the broadcasters mentioned that Sunil Narine doesn’t attend meetings, but Phil Salt does and gives his valuable inputs as well. He said :
“Narine still does not attend those meetings but Salt is always there, gives us his inputs and it’s pure bliss to see him coming up and doing all this,”
“Varun has not been at his best the last few games. He has been assessing the wicket and has been giving us inputs. The way he turned up today was simply brilliant,” he added.
Kolkata Knight Riders are currently second in the IPL table and cruising towards the playoffs. They would want to maintain their winning momentum when they face Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on 3rd April 2024.
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