The Kolkata Knight Riders tonight produced a complete performance against Punjab Kings in IPL 2021. Eoin Morgan’s men registered their second win of the season after thumping Punjab Kings at Ahmedabad.

In the first half, it was a dreadful batting show by Punjab Kings. None of their batsmen could adapt to the conditions and ended up giving a lot of soft dismissals. The Kolkata Knight Riders bowlers kept striking and Punjab Kings could only muster a disappointing 123 runs after 20 overs.

Kolkata Knight Riders win by 5 wickets against Punjab Kings

Prasidh Krishna could a bit of tap from Chris Jordan in the last over otherwise he was brilliant. He in his 4 overs gave away 30 runs and picked 3 wickets.

It was always going to be about wickets for Punjab Kings in the run chase. They started off well as they snaffled 3 quick wickets. However, a steady partnership between Eoin Morgan and Rahul Tripathi took the match away from them.

The Kolkata Knight Riders skipper batted sensibly and remained unbeaten on 47 runs. His team finished the match off in the 17th over and earned 2 valuable points in IPL 2021.

Who Said What?

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Meanwhile here’s what the captains and the man of the match had to say in the post-match presentation.

” It is never nice to be on the losing side. Don’t know what to say. We should have adapted better. We could have applied a lot more with the bat. Expect the boys to be smarter. Some soft dismissals have cost us the game. It was a bit two paced. Kept a little up down. Was tough to assess what are the high risk shots here.

“It is expected of good teams to adapt quicker. We need to keep our heads higher and keep trying. Bishnoi’s catch was stunning. Especially when you have a coach like Jonty Rhodes, he puts us to tough tests and sees how every boy reacts. The training rubs on during match situations. Hopefully we can keep building and get better”, said Rahul. 

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“Wins haven’t been easy to come by. Have worked incredibly hard. Today, along with a bit of luck, the performance was very impressive particularly with the ball upfront. When the wicket’s like that – from the 12th over of our innings, the ball was sliding on. Only his second game this season (Mavi). The match-up against Gayle was favourable. He bowled well in the last game and started well here. For him to make an impact is huge, credit to him”

“The advantage we have over most spinners is that our spinners are variation bowlers. They don’t rely on drift and turn. They control their lengths well and rely on a tiny amount of turn and today they were exceptional. Lot of time to go in the tournament. Hopefully today can kick-start something for us”.

“Certainly think it’s challenging and it does have to be managed for players, coaching staff. When you consider the horrific nature of what’s happening outside the bubble, we try and lend our support and encouragement for everything that’s going on not only in India but around the world. If you’re going out stay safe, wear a mask, social distance. We’ve seen first hand at home how devastating it can be. On behalf of KKR we wish everyone well. Ultimately if we stick together we can beat this thing”, said Morgan who was also the man of the match.