Former champion Kolkata Knight Riders suffered yet another loss, as it was outsmarted by fellow former champion Rajasthan Royals in Match 18 of the Indian Premier League 2021 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday. With this loss, KKR suffered its fourth defeat of the season in five games, as along with a win, it dropped to the bottom of the points table.KKR has never really clicked at Wankhede, winning just a game of the 11 matches it has played at the venue, with its only win coming in 2012, while it holds the worst win-loss ratio by a T20 side in a particular venue, having played at least ten games. Meanwhile, the side was lambasted by skipper Eoin Morgan, who blamed the side for showing a lack of intent throughout the game.
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"I think we lacked a lot of intent and impetus throughout our whole innings. We were sort of behind the eight balls probably from the get-go. Rajasthan adapted to the wicket really well and we didn't. So, I would say the majority was with the bat. About 40 short, which is a lot in a T20 game. Too much for our bowlers tonight," Morgan said during the post-match presentation.
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"It was almost a stark contrast to the last game. We had guys who built partnerships that just lacked a bit of intent. I think the wicket today wasn't as good as it has been here at the Wankhede in the previous games, so that was a challenge in itself, and a challenge that we didn't overcome. So, ourselves with a lot to do," he added.
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KKR gets set to move to Ahmedabad for its next few games, where it would be desperate to get back to winning ways. Meanwhile, Morgan has hoped for the side to play both smart and free-flowing cricket if it is still to challenge for the playoffs spot."I think the clearer the mind, the easier it is. I think the capabilities of our side… There is an element of playing smart cricket and building partnerships within that, but ultimately we want guys to play some free-flowing cricket," he concluded.
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Match summaryWinning the toss and electing to bowl, RR managed to restrict KKR to a below-par total of 1339, thanks to pacer Chris Morris's four-for. In reply, it was skipper Sanju Samson, whose unbeaten 42 helped to steer RR's ship comfortably, with seven balls to spare, despite being a slow chase.Brief scores: KKR 1339 (Tripathi- 36; Morris- 423) lost to RR 1344 in 18.5 overs (Samson- 42*; Chakravarthy- 232) by six wickets.
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