Kolkata Knight Riders hard-hitting opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz revealed that he had a simple plan to take on his countryman Rashid Khan in the middle overs against the Gujarat Titans on Saturday. The 21-year-old played an explosive knock of 81 runs off just 39 balls but ended up on the losing side against the defending champions.
The Afghanistan wicket-keeper batter replaced their previous match star, Jason Roy, who missed out on the clash due to a niggle and his replacement Gurbaz made an impact straight away in the opening as he was the lone warrior for the two-time champions, as their side lost wickets in a regular interval.
His aggressive knock helped Kolkata Knight Riders to post a total of 179-7 at the end of 20 overs, which was not enough for the home team, as GT chased down the total with 13 balls to spare. Speaking on his game plan to take Rashid Khan, Gurbaz said that it was not easy to take on Rashid Khan as his game plan was to punish the bad balls of Rashid.
“I can’t say [batting against] Rashid is easy. For everyone, he is difficult. He is one of the best. But, I had a simple plan against him – if he bowls a loose ball to me, I will go for it. That was my simple plan to build my innings,” Rahmanullah Gurbaz said.
Vijay Shankar’s innings was the turning point in the match as the Tamil Nadu batter’s blistering innings helped Gujarat Titans chase down the total in 17.5 overs as he accelerated his KKR spinner Varun Chakravarthy in his final overs taking him for 3 sixes to rule KKR completely out of the contest.
We Tried Our Best, But The End Result Was On Their Side – Rahmanullah Gurbaz
Rahmanullah Gurbaz believes it is important for their team to come together and get momentum in the league and said that the team has done well and sometimes the luck was not in the favour and revealed that everyone in the team is working hard to do their best for the two-time champions.
“We should try to get the momentum back. We played well at the start and won some matches as well. But sometimes luck does not work. Everyone is working hard, 100 percent. We tried our best, but the result was on their side. We can’t do anything about that,” said Gurbaz.
Kolkata Knight Riders will be on the road for their next encounter against the Sunrisers Hyderabad and will look to make the most out of the forthcoming matches to give them the best chance to qualify for the playoffs of IPL 2023.