Kolkata Knight Riders lost to Delhi Capitals by 18 runs in chasing a record score of 229 to win in Sharjah on Saturday, September 03. Eoin Morgan scored 44 of 18 balls, coming into bat at number six in the final phase of the KKR chase. In the process, he added a 78-run stand with Rahul Tripathi (36 off 16 balls) to help Kolkata give a real shot at winning the game. However, after the game, Morgan defended his management’s decision of sending him at number six.

KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik scored six off eight balls coming into bat at number four. Andre Russell was moved up to number four which was a good decision by the management, but unfortunately, didn’t pay off against DC.

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Difficult to Bat Up The Order With Match-Winners In The Side: Eoin Morgan

Defending his management’s decision regarding holding him back for the back end of the innings Eoin Morgan said ” “When you look at our batting line-up, we have a number of match-winners, so it’s very difficult to go up the order, particularly when you have a world-class all-rounder in Andre Russell. He is an incredible striker, and when he comes up the order, obviously everybody else has to shift down a little bit.”

The England skipper also spoke on the reason behind the management backing Sunil Narine to open despite failing to score runs with the bat in all the games.

“Sunil is the type of player who can produce match-winning innings. It’s never been a string of scores, over the years, but more about his impact in a game. He always takes the positive option, which summarises how we want to play our cricket,” Eoin Morgan concluded.

KKR play their next two games in Abu Dhabi against CSK (October 7) and Kings XI Punjab (October 10) respectively. They are currently fifth in the points table with two wins and as many losses after four games.

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