IPL 2023: KKR captain Nitish Rana unhappy with KKR bowlers for continuous failure

Mumbai Indians defeated Nitish Rana-led Kolkata Knight Riders by 5 wickets to register their 2nd win of the season.

Two back to back wins have put Mumbai Indians back on track. After struggling since the IPL 2022, Mumbai Indians are finally looking comfortable with their squad and look to have connected all the dots in team balance. Mumbai defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 5 wickets convincingly. They chased down 186 runs at Wankhede Stadium comfortably with 14 balls still left to play. Opener Ishan Kishan had a blistering start and scored 58 runs in 25 balls. He added 65 runs with Rohit Sharma (20).

Nitish Rana comes down hard KKR bowlers

After two wickets were down for Mumbai Indians, MI captain in this game, Suryakumar Yadav along with Tilak Verma took the inning forward with their positive approach. Both of them added 60 runs for the third wicket. Tilak Verma scored 30 while Suryakumar scored 43 runs. David with two sixes against Varun put MI’s authority on the game in the 15th over. Apart from leg spinner Suyash Sharma, no KKR bowler could create any trouble against MI batters. Suyash in his 4 overs conceded 27 runs and picked up 2 wickets. KKR captain Nitish was upset with the bowlers and said, “If our best bowlers are going for runs, there’s not much to say… I definitely want my bowling unit to deliver more. One or two games are fine but it’s been five games now”. Apart from Suyash, every bowler had an economy rate of almost or over 10 runs per over.

Captain Nitish Rana felt bad for Venkatesh as his inning was not enough to win the game for KKR. He lacked support from the other end. Rana said, “I feel quite bad for Venky, You play so well score a century in a day game in Mumbai, and you end up on the losing side. I feel bad for him”. Venkatesh batted brilliantly to score his first IPL century in his inning, but he could not gather support from the other end. Venkatesh Iyer was awarded Player of the Match. Venkatesh was also disappointed with the loss, He said, “Would have been happier if we would have finished the game in winning note. But I am pleased with my efforts”. He scored 104 runs in 51 balls.

MI carrying momentum from the last game

Mumbai’s full-time captain Rohit Sharma was not part of the starting eleven while fielding due to a stomach bug. Rohit came in as an impact player while batting. In his absence from the field, Suryakumar Yadav led Mumbai Indians. Suryakumar Yadav was happy with Mumbai’s performance and he said, “We had a chat in the dugout that we had to carry the momentum from the last game and boys put on a show”. Ishan Kishan started aggressively which set the tone for MI's middle order in the middle overs. Surya said, “At the Wankhede, in day games, 160-170 is a good score but Ishan Kishan got us off to a great start”. Kishan smashed 10 boundaries in the 25 balls he faced.