New Delhi: Having suffered a massive defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore after putting up 84/8 in their last outing, KKR were not given much of a chance against the high-flying Delhi Capitals.
But Nitish Rana and Sunil Narine stepped up in style to lift them to 194/6 and then Varun Chakravarthy’s five-wicket haul (5/20) along with Pat Cummins’ three-wicket effort choked DC, who are sitting pretty on second in the points table. “I think the timing of this couldn’t be any better. Playing against a side who are second coming towards the business end of the tournament, two points is huge,” Morgan said in the post-match press conference.
“We had the most complete performance as a group in this tournament so far. Until today, we feel as if we hadn’t played our best cricket. Today I think it was close to that,” he added. It was Narine (64) and Rana (81) who set it up for KKR in a 115-run partnership from 56 balls. Playing his first match after being cleared of suspect bowling action, Narine batted at five and fired on all cylinders in his 32-ball 64.
“…I think that rubbed off on Nitish Rana as well. Watching them play with the freedom that they did was outstanding.” “Sunil has been an integral part of this franchise for a number of years now. His ability as an all-rounder is key in our team. “To have him back and come in and perform not only with the ball but with the bat, I think is outstanding. He has just proved how valuable he is to the team.” Promotion to open the innings also worked for left-handed Rana, who shrugged off his poor scores of 9, 2, 9, 5, 29 and 0 in his last six innings to slam 81 from 53 balls.
“This now can be the start of his campaign taking things forward. Today, against one of the best bowling lineups in the tournament, he played absolutely outstanding,” Morgan said all praise for Rana. He also spoke very highly of mystery spinner Chakravarthy who returned with the first five-wicket haul of this season.
