“Credit to Sunny for what he did in second innings”: Venkatesh Iyer hails Sunil Narine’s knock against RCB

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], March 30 (ANI): After the win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) star Venkatesh Iyer and captain Shreyas Iyer shared insights into the crucial element of the team’s strategies and credited Sunil Narine’s blistering display for the comfortable run chase.

With a scintillating batting display, the Kolkata Knight Riders became the first team to win away from home in this IPL following their comprehensive seven-wicket win over RCB at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. Chasing 183, KKR got off a solid start from Sunil Narine (47 off 22 balls) and Philip Salt (30), and the speed was carried forward by Venkatesh (50 off 30 deliveries) and Shreyas (39* off 24 balls), as KKR reached 186/3 after 16.5 overs.

Narine did not do as well with the ball despite his lofty standards. However, he demonstrated his worth with the bat, scoring 47 off just 22 deliveries. He took on the RCB bowling in the powerplay phase, and KKR scored 85 runs, nearly half of their total. Narine was dismissed by Mayank Dagar in the seventh over, but not before hitting two fours and five sixes in his innings.

Venkatesh lauded captain Shreyas’ decision to bowl first after winning the toss. “I think the wicket got better. Credit to you, you chose to bowl first. That was a very good decision. Important toss for us to win. You saw out there, it got better to bat. It was important for us to understand that the ball bowled at a slower pace was not coming onto the bat as nicely. So I think that was very important for us. Credit to Sunny for what he did in the second innings,” Venkatesh said in a video posted by IPL on X.

Venkatesh commented on how Narine’s onslaught made things simpler for the rest of the batting team, as proven by the 19 deliveries left at the end of the run chase.

It was important for me to carry on the momentum. We have all spoken about taking the momentum through and if we do get a platform, then banking on it. That’s what Sunny did, he gave us an amazing start and all I had to do was just go and capitalise on that. When you came in, I think the communication among us was amazing. You know which bowler to take on, which end to look for shots and I think that really helped us,” he further added.

Meanwhile, KKR captain Shreyas explained how he and Venkatesh prepared their batting strategy against the RCB in the second innings. Following the demise of the openers, Venkatesh and Shreyas took on the responsibility of driving the team to victory, putting together a crucial 75-run partnership that clinched KKR’s seven-wicket triumph.

“To be honest when we were communicating in between, the wicket was two-paced and from one end it was coming great onto the bat and from the other end, it was stopping a bit, getting some extra nip with the slower one. So, that’s what basically I realised that this is the way we have to play and one end we have to target the bowlers and from the other, we need to atleast get ball-to-ball runs. That was the communication which we had and that was the mindset to finish off the game,” he said.

With back-to-back victories in two matches, KKR will take on Delhi Capitals in their next match in Vizag on Wednesday.