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Kolkata Knight Riders captain Nitish Rana was delighted that powerhouse batsman Andre Russell had finally come to the party this IPL season, saying he had been “supporting” the Jamaican knowing that a match win was just around the corner.
KKR defeated the Punjab Kings by five wickets, chasing a winning target of 180 runs off the last ball of the innings, with Russell hitting a 23-ball 43 batted in by three fours and as many as he could.
Punishing fast PBKS Russell Sam Curran in the penultimate over of the innings, he hit England’s bowler for three sixes before West Indian was run out, leaving Rinku Singh to score the winning runs.
Rinku smashes the last ball boundary to win the game for KKR.
“Ten matches passed, we were all waiting for that round for Russell. He was one round away, and I kept backing him saying you’ve done a lot, you’ll win us 100 per cent in a match,” said Nitish Rana.
Rana also admitted that he was furious with the bowlers admitting to running in the last couple of overs to allow PBKS to score 179/7.
“That pitch was a home edge feeling too. He bowled so badly at death I was furious we conceded so much because this was a wicket with a length of 160-165.
Punjab Kings captain Shekhar Dhawan lamented the lack of a player devoid of quality in his side, although leg-spinner Rahul Chahar did make a tight spell.
“I feel like we don’t have a good element. When the left-handers come in, at one end we have leg spinners and at the other end we have left-arm spinners (Harpreet Brar). This is where I feel like we’re getting a bit of a run-down,” Shekhar said. She offers a role as well, so I feel like that’s where we got the hit.”
The Dhawas seem depressed now as they stare downward.
“I don’t feel that’s cool. We lost the game and it wasn’t an easy path to speculate on and I feel we put up a pretty good total. In the end, they played well.
“It was a great effort from Arshdeep (Singh) and the way he bounced back from the last game, all the credit goes to him. It was interesting that he took the game till the last ball so it was really good,” Shekhar added.
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