Kolkata: After facing a humiliating loss against Mumbai Indians last night at the Eden Gardens, a disappointed Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Shah Rukh Khan tweeted an apology to fans. KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik too looked devastated after their 102-run lost against MI, but despite of that he feels that it’s important to forget this horrible performance and move forward and concentrate on the next game.
“Yes, I’m very disappointed. But if you ask me if we can still qualify for the play-offs, I would say, yes, play-offs are still possible. There are still three games left and if you take them one at a time and win, we will have a great chance. I believe in that and I want my teammates to believe in that. That’s the most important thing,” said Karthik at the post-match press conference.
Mumbai Indians have occupied the fourth spot in the points table removing KKR from there. Both teams have same points but MI has a much better run rate after they thumped the home side by 102 runs. This is the first time that Kolkata Knight Riders are out of top 4 in this season’s IPL.
“The biggest challenge is to forget a night like this, when you have been outplayed. You have to give credit to the Mumbai Indians, they played real good cricket, batted well in the middle overs and turned the game. It’s all about how you forget these things and move on to the next match,” added Karthik.
Karthik knows it very well that a big loss against Mumbai on Wednesday has affected the team’s net run-rate a lot but he is still hopeful that his team will recover. “If we can play three good games, the net-run rate will again go up, so we shouldn’t worry.”
As per KKR skipper the wicket was good to bat on but losing wickets in regular intervals was the reason for this huge defeat. “The wicket was good. I thought 190 was the par score, so they got around 20 more than the par score. We succumbed to pressure and lost too many wickets in the Power-play overs. Once you do that, it is very difficult to catch up,” Karthik said.
He also praised Mumbai’s wicket-keeper batsman Ishan Kishan who’s four back to back sixes changed the complexion of the game.
“Yes, Ishan made the difference. He batted brilliantly and changed the run rate of their innings.”
Before signing off Karthik said that Shivam Mavi is still recovering from his finger injury and Shubman Gill missed the game due to sore knee.