All credit to the fast bowlers: Gambhir
Kolkata: A packed Eden Gardens crowd was thrilled to a brilliant bowling performance from the Knight Riders fast bowlers as the hosts successfully defended 131 runs they scored batting first here on Sunday. Such was the impact from the KKR pace attack that the power packed Royal Challengers batting collapsed for only 49 runs, the lowest in the history of IPL. Ironically, the previous lowest was of 58 by Rajasthan Royals against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the year 2009.
It might sound unbelievable, but it did happened as the RCB batsmen led by Virat Kohli collapsed like nine-pins to some fierce pace bowling from the likes of Nathan Coulter Nile, Umesh Yadav, Chris Woakes and Collin de Grandhomme.
It was one of the best sustained fast bowling ever seen in IPL.
A furious looking RCB captain later blamed his batsmen for the humiliating loss.
According to Kohli, “It was reckless batting, I can’t say anything, it was that bad. As professionals, we’re expected to do better. This is not acceptable.”
The RCB captain further added, “It was one of the worst batting performance if not the worst of IPL all time. It really hurts”
There was a controversy surrounding the dismissal of Kohli. The RCB captain did not seem too happy with a movement behind the side screen. Later he admitted, “It’s one of those small things that do happen. Side screen here (Eden Gardens) is pretty small. That’s not a big deal. We still nine wickets. We just didn’t turn up for the challenge.”
The Challengers will now play four matches on the trot starting with the game against the defending champions Sunrisers. On being asked to review the situation, Kohli said, “There’s nothing to review. We just have to take positive from the first half. We have to move on, this is shocking.”
Lastly he admitted that the batsmen need to sit down and retrospect where they went wrong.
“I am sure everyone realizes where they have gone wrong. These things do not happen every day. It is the same batsmen who scored 200+ runs in the last match.”
Winning captain Gautam Gambhir credited his bowlers for successfully defending the low total.
“All credit to the bowlers. Specially the way Nile and Umesh bowled were outstanding,” said Gambhir after the match.
It was a great sight for a packed Eden Gardens crowd to watch the pace battery of the home side unleash a fierce pace on a helpful wicket.
According to the KKR captain, “We have got three bowlers who can bowl at such lively pace. There was something in the wicket for the fast bowlers. The message was they had got the pace so all they needed was to go out in the middle and express themselves, which they did to perfection.”
The Knight Riders admitted they were at least 30-40 runs short after the great start from Sunil Narine.
“We should have actually got 160-170 runs on board. We cannot afford to get all out in 18th over. That’s a serious offence in this format,” feel Gambhir.