KKR vs DC: "Would not recommend him to come" - Shreyas Iyer bars Sunil Narine from KKR meetings

Team Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) led by Shreyas Iyer took on the Rishabh Pant-led Delhi Capitals (DC) in the 47th match of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) on Monday, April 29, at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Kolkata Knight Riders lost the toss but got what they wanted as they bowled first. The KKR bowlers did an incredible job in the match and didn't let any Delhi Capitals batter settle down in the middle. Varun Chakravarthy was the top performer with his figures of 3/16 as KKR restricted DC to 153/9. Vaibhav Arora (2), Harshit Rana (2), Sunil Narine (1), and Mitchell Starc (1) also picked up wickets for the side.

Chasing the target, Phil Salt (68) and Sunil Narine (15) took the team off to a flyer. Rinku Singh (11) was promoted to No.3 and he failed to score big. However, KKR completed the run-chase easily as Shreyas Iyer (33) and Venkatesh Iyer (26) batted brilliantly. KKR won the match by 7 wickets with 21 balls remaining.

At the post-match presentation ceremony, Shreyas Iyer said that the track for the match against Delhi Capitals came as a surprise to them as they are used to the pitches that produce high-scoring games. Shreyas Iyer said:

"[on if the pitch would play this way?] Not at all. Considering the last few matches, 200 was a par score. After the powerplay, the pitch started helping the spinners, was tacky. We got a fair idea as to how it played and to tackle the tackiness."

Talking about the KKR openers, Shreyas Iyer said that Sunil Narine doesn't attend team meetings but Phil Salt is always there and he gives his inputs as well. Shreyas Iyer also recommended Narine to continue skipping the team meetings. He said:

"Narine still does not attend those meetings but Salt is always there, gives us his inputs and it's pure bliss to see him coming up and doing all this. [if Narine attends meetings] He doesn't. I would not recommend him to come either."

Shreyas Iyer, at last, spoke about Player of the Match award winner Varun Chakravarthy for his heroics and said:

"[on Chakaravarthy] he has not been at his best the last few games. He has been assessing the wicket and has been giving us inputs. The way he turned up today was simply brilliant. [qualification] We have always been looking at it, even from the first game. The mindset is to qualify as early as possible. Just work on our work ethic and processes, don't want to look at the points table."

Unlike The DC Clash, KKR Bowlers Had A Nightmarish Outing In Their Last Match

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bowling unit had an absolutely nightmarish outing in the previous match of the team against the Sam Curran-led Punjab Kings (PBKS) on April 26 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

The batting unit of KKR fired on all cylinders and demolished the PBKS bowlers to post a gigantic total of 261/6, which wasn't a total that could be chased down - this was the thought of the fans and experts watching the game.

However, Punjab Kings did the unthinkable, proved everyone's perception wrong, and pulled off a miraculous chase that too in just 18.4 overs. It took the attacking brand of cricket from the top-4 of Punjab Kings in Jonny Bairstow (108*), Prabhsimran Singh (54), Rilee Rossouw (26), and Shashank Singh (68*) to chase down the target and register an 8-wicket win. This was the biggest-ever run-chase in the history of T20 cricket and arguably the greatest ever too.

Kolkata Knight Riders used 7 bowling options in the match as Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Dushmantha Chameera, Andre Russell and Ramandeep Singh rolled their arms over. However, only Sunil Narine picked a wicket and gave away runs at an incredible economy of 6.00 in a high-scoring thriller.