IPL 2019: You Don't Talk Much, Says Dinesh Karthik On Andre Russell's Knock

Kolkata Knight Riders would have feared the worst when their skipper Dinesh Karthik departed on the final ball of the 17th over, leaving the team reeling at 153 for 5 while chasing 205. Knight Riders were off to an electric start with Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine adding 28 runs in just 10 balls before the latter fell to Navdeep Saini. Lynn and Robin Uthappa then struggled to score consistently but the Knight Riders still managed to score 59 runs in the powerplay.

The duo, however, soon accelerated and hit boundaries on regular intervals. Pawan Negi then broke the stand in the tenth over by dismissing Uthappa to reduce the visitors to 93 for 2. Royal Challengers could have then dismissed Lynn in the very following over but Mohammed Siraj dropped a fairly each catch as Knight Riders crossed the 100-run mark in the 11th over.

But fortunately for the Royal Challengers, Negi castled Lynn in the very next over to send him back for 43.

Nitish Rana was the next to depart, falling in the 16th over after scoring 37 to leave the Knight Riders 139 for 4.  The game was slightly drifting towards the hosts before Andre Russell hit three sixes in the 18th over to bring down the equation to 30 from the last two overs.

In the next over, he hit Tim Southee for 4 sixes and a four to collect 29 runs before Shubman Gill scored the winning runs. Russell remained unbeaten 48 off just 13 balls with the help of seven sixes.

Speaking at the end of the game, Dinesh Karthik was at loss of words after being asked to describe Russell’s knock.

“Those kind of knocks, you don’t talk much. We trust him as a player. It’s important to give him an atmosphere where he’s happy and he just keeps performing. Yeah, it was hard to play strokes against spinners with the ball gripping but was easier against the fast bowlers. I think as much as well he batted, it’s time we all started to bowl better and help the batters. It was nice to see Lynny bat like that and take responsibility,” said Dinesh Karthik.