Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Shreyas Iyer spoke about his team’s victory over Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in match 10 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. He praised Sunil Narine for his brilliant innings, but admitted that before the match he had doubts regarding the versatile opening.
Kolkata Knight Riders are off to a solid start in IPL 2024. They won two of their two games in the tournament and took second place in the points table. Their second win was dominant as they defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 7 wickets.
One of the main reasons for his victory was Sunil Narine. After KKR restricted RCB to a total of 182 runs, the all-rounder tilted the game in favor of his batting within the powerplay with the bat. The left-hander played a brutal innings, in which KKR scored 86 runs in a powerplay.
Sunil Narine scored 47 runs in 22 balls which set the tone for the chase. Before Venkatesh Iyer (50) and Shreyas Iyer (37*) finished the game on a high for the team. They chased down the target with 3.1 overs to spare and continued their dominance at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Shreyas Iyer, while talking about the victory, stated that they had good net sessions under their belt. He praised Andre Russell (2/29) for analyzing the conditions with the ball well and added that Sunil Narine played a brilliant innings for them with the bat. During the post-match presentation, he explained:
“Coming here, doing those two practice sessions, we were in good shape from the previous game. By coming in and hitting some balls, he felt comfortable inside. The way Russell came in and realized that the wicket wasn’t giving much to the bowlers, and he moved on to slower bowlers, analyzing the conditions at the spot was pleasing to the eye. Communication was brilliant.
“Look when Narine comes in to open, he knows he has a job, which is to clean the box. Today we were contemplating whether to start with him or not, but he did a brilliant job. On the one hand, it was good to move on. From the other side, there were two rhythms.”
Wanting to enjoy the success of others: that’s the plan for now – Shreyas Iyer
Shreyas Iyer further said that they are not looking far ahead as they are focused on just one game at a time. He concluded by saying that KKR as a team wants to enjoy each other’s success, which is his plan. He elaborated:
“That was the communication we had in the middle and we transmitted it to others. I would spend a day tomorrow in Bangalore and then go to Vizag. I don’t expect much at this point, it’s just the beginning of the tournament. Wanting to enjoy the success of others: that’s the plan for now.”
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will next be seen in action when they take on Delhi Capitals next Wednesday (April 3). They would be interested in extending their winning streak.