Throughout The Tournament So Far We've Struggled To Combine Batting And Bowling In One Match: Eoin Morgan

Eoin Morgan was back to his dismal run with the bat as Kolkata Knight Riders slumped to a ten-wicket loss against the Delhi Capitals in Delhi. Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw raced to the target in a flash, began by the latter’s 25-run first over. Eoin Morgan, who recorded a duck in the two balls he faced, bemoaned the Knight Riders’ lack of consistency throughout the tournament that has led them to suffer their fifth defeat.

Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana looked far more assured in this innings before the latter departed after a reverse-sweep six off Axar Patel. Gill and Rahul Tripathi added a promising 44 runs from 35 deliveries, with the former looking on track for a big score. Tripathi’s wicket began changing things for the Capitals, with Eoin Morgan and Sunil Narine registering ducks.

Gill, who made 43, holed out to Steve Smith in the 13th over at long-on. Axar Patel picked up his second wicket, dismissing Dinesh Karthik. Andre Russell salvaged some pride for the Knight Riders with his unbeaten 27-ball 45, laced with two fours and four sixes. The two-time champions picked up 59 runs off the final five to reach 154.

Prithvi Shaw could not have started the innings in a better way as he hammered 25 runs off the first over bowled by Shivam Mavi. Shikhar Dhawan also joined the party soon enough as both of them hardly gave the Knight Riders’ bowlers any opening. Pat Cummins offered his side consolation wickets in the form of Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw, and Rishabh Pant. Marcus Stoinis and Shimtron Hetmyer stayed till the end and finished it off.

Andre got us to 150, but we were slow with the ball again: Eoin Morgan

Eoin Morgan expressed his disappointment, lamenting the slow start along with the lack of wickets in the middle overs. The Irishman credited Andre Russell for getting them to 150 and conceded that they have struggled throughout the tournament as both their departments have not clicked simultaneously. Eoin Morgan explained his decision not to bowl Pat Cummins with the new ball, saying he has done it earlier and Shivam Mavi performed the role well in the previous game. The 34-year old admitted that they have performed underwhelmingly despite the amount of talent in their armoury. He hopes for the Knight Riders to bounce back.

“Yeah, very disappointed. We were quite slow off the blocks, and lost wickets in the middle. Andre got us to 150, but we were slow with the ball again. Throughout the tournament so far we’ve struggled to combine batting and bowling in one match. Pat Cummins has been bowled earlier with the new ball [last season]. Mavi bowled four on the trot last game and bowled well. Moving forward, we need our big-name players to get into the action. You need to be honest and realistic. Otherwise you are doing a disservice to the guys in the change room. Hopefully, we can turn things around. We have a huge amount of talent, but talent only gets you so far. You need to turn it into performance, which we haven’t done,” Eoin Morgan told in the post-match presentation.

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