Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Shreyas Iyer has spoken about the defeat his team faced in the match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. He said that he is happy that his batting has failed at first. of the tournament.
After achieving three consecutive victories in IPL 2024, Kolkata Knight Riders finally tasted defeat in the tournament. Chennai Super Kings beat them by 7 wickets at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai to mark their third win of the season in five games.
Kolkata Knight Riders had a torrid outing with the bat as they managed just 137 runs on the board. Captain Shreyas Iyer was the highest run-getter for his team as he scored 34 runs. Sunil Narine (27) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (24) were the other top scores and apart from the trio, the batsman was able to surpass the 15-run mark.
With the ball, they couldn’t pick grounds quickly, which took them an hour. CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad (67*) played a vital role and took the game away from the rival. They chased down the target with 7 wickets in the game and 14 balls to spare.
Shreyas Iyer admitted that they failed to assess the conditions after the powerplay, which was phenomenal for them. The Kolkata Knight Riders captain praised the Chennai Super Kings bowlers for executing their plans and not allowing them to build the innings. In statements to the stations, he explained:
“It’s deafening here, but I’ll try to express it. We had a phenomenal start in the powerplay, but we lost back-to-back wickets. We couldn’t assess the conditions quickly after the powerplay, scoring runs wasn’t easy.
“They (CSK) know the conditions quite well, they played according to their plans. It was not easy (for the new batsmen) to chase them from the first ball. We were trying to build the innings, but it was not possible to fall into place according to the plan. “
We need to analyze situations and make the most of them – Shreyas Iyer
Shreyas Iyer further stated that after that power play they backed themselves to get a total of 160-70 but lost the momentum. He accepted the defeat with his head held high and said that they will go back to the drawing board because they need to evaluate the conditions well. He elaborated:
“The terrain changed after the power play. We were in a comfortable spot and thought 160-170 was a good score, but we lost momentum. We have to go back to the drawing board and learn from that.
“I’m glad this happened at the beginning of the tournament. When we come back, we know the conditions at home quite well. We need to analyze the situations and make the most of them.”
Kolkata Knight Riders will next be seen in action when they take on Lucknow Super Giants in their home match on Sunday (April 14).