Xtra Time Web Desk: Kolkata Knight Rider’s star all-rounder Andre Russell on Tuesday reacted to team co-owner Shah Rukh Khan’s tweet after the loss against Mumbai Indians at Chennai. The Bollywood superstar tweeted his ‘disappointment’ and also apologized to the KKR fans on behalf of the players.
Reacting to the tweet from Shah Rukh, Andre Russell admitted that the KKR camp is disappointed with the performance which saw them mess up what was a run-a-ball chase at the 15th over mark to end up with a humbling 10-run loss. The Jamaican power hitter sounded extremely confident that his team mates will learn from their mistakes and come back stronger in the next match.
In an almost bizarre turn of events, KKR stumbled from 84-2 in the 10th over to 142-7 at the end of the innings. After a brilliant opening stand between Nitish Rana (57 off 47) and Shubman Gill (33 off 24), none of the middle-order batsmen crossed double digits.
The middle order of the Knight Riders totally crumbled against the disciplined Mumbai attack. None of the KKR middle order batsmen – Shakib al Hasan, Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell and Eoin Morgan got going as they threw away their wickets trying to go for big shots. Russell, in particular, looked completely out of touch as he only managed a solitary boundary, that too off a free hit. With 13 required off the last 4 balls, he toe-ended Trent Boult’s yorker to hand him an easy return catch.
Following the loss, Russell suggested that it wasn’t easy for the new batsmen to get off the blocks on the sticky Chennai wicket. He remarked that from now on, the team will try to make sure that batsmen set on the crease finish the game as well.
The Knight Riders will next meet Royal Challengers Bangalore in Mumbai on April 18.