It came in as a surprise to everyone when in-form Eoin Morgan was sent to bat at the number six for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their mammoth chase against DC. KKR had won the toss and chosen to field at the Sharjah cricket stadium which is a batting paradise.
Prithvi Shaw (66), Iyer (88), and Rishabh Pant (38) fired Delhi to set a massive target of 229 for the Knight Riders to chase. Kolkata failed in their chase by 18 runs after they could only manage to score 210 in 20 overs. KKR’s Nitish Rana scored a vital knock of 58 runs.
Eoin Morgan came in at number 6 to quick-fire 44 runs off only 18 balls including 5 sixes but could not hold his wicket against DC pacer Anrich Nortje.
Eoin Morgan tells it is hard to come up the order when there are a number of match-winners in that lineup
The England skipper stated that his coming down the order was justified because of the depth in batting that Kolkata have. He said it’s difficult to get up the order specifically when there is Andre Russell in the team.
“No, I don’t think so. When you look at the batting lineup, there are a number of match-winners in that lineup,” said Eoin Morgan responding to whether he should have come earlier to bat.
“It’s very difficult one to sort of get up the order particularly (when you have) world-class batsman, allrounder Andre Russell. He’s an incredible striker of the ball. When he comes up the order, everybody shifts down a little bit,” he added.
KKR lose their second IPL 2020 game
KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik yet again couldn’t help his team any bit in their chase. He scored six runs off eight balls and was dismissed by Harshal Patel. Andre Russell was sent above his usual position to power KKR in the big chase but he was dismissed only for 13 runs.
Morgan and Rahul Tripathi (36) quick fired in the end but couldn’t hold their wicket. As a result, KKR lost the match by 18 runs
Kolkata Knight Riders stand at the 5th spot with two wins and as many losses. They will next face Chennai Super Kings on October 7 at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi.