You can’t choose between Sunil Narine and Andre Russell: Shreyas Iyer

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by seven wickets to register the first away win of the IPL 2024, at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Friday. KKR chased RCB's 183-run target with 19 deliveries to spare. JioCinema IPL expert Shane Watson discussed the performances of Philip Salt (30 runs) and Sunil Narine (47 runs, 1/40), while KKR captain Shreyas Iyer (39 runs) spoke exclusively on Match Centre Live.

"It's going really well because the think-tank is vast. Everyone's inputs have been spot-on in terms of analysing the wicket and communicating information. Our communication is very strong right now," he said on leading Kolkata Knight Riders and the help from their think tank.

On being asked to pick between Sunil Narine as an opener or Andre Russell as a death bowler, Iyer said: "You can't choose because you're talking about bowling at the death on one end and opening on the other. They're both very useful and phenomenal assets for the team because if they have a rough showing with the ball, they can make it up with the bat. This is a big positive for our team,."

Also read: Impossible for RCB to win the IPL with this bowling attack: Michael Vaughan

Shane Watson on Sunil Narine: "I think it might be wishful thinking for him to reach 500 more (appearances) but there's no question he's a match-winner, and he's been that his entire career. It's normally with the ball where he's turned up for KKR. But when he bats like this, for KKR or any team he's played for, he really takes the game away from the opposition really quickly because he's so dynamic, hitting good balls. 47 off 22 balls was really the impetus for them to be able to push in and chase these runs with 3.1 overs to spare."

Also read: 'How much Virat Kohli will do alone?' - Sunil Gavaskar slams RCB batters after shoddy outing versus KKR

Watson on Philip Salt and KKR's batting: "Those first three overs, they were all really good cricket shots, really good balls at the top of the stumps. But because of Philip Salt, in particular, the first couple of boundaries he hit and then the errors started to come from the bowlers, and they started to change their pace and get a little bit too full. That’s when they could capitalise even more at the end of the powerplay... For an opposition bowling attack, when your best balls are still going to the boundary, that's when you're under serious pressure. That shows the calibre of Philip Salt to start things off with and then Sunil Narine, who put his foot down when he needed to."