IPL 2020: Match 35 – KKR vs SRH – Who Said What

The 35th match of the Indian Premier League got underway between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Abu Dhabi. KKR won the action-packed contest in Super Over thriller. Being invited to bat first, Kolkata Knight Riders posted a decent 163/5 on the board. Batters from KKR added decent runs from their bats in the team’s total. Shubman Gill (36 off 37) and Eoin Morgan (34 off 23) turned out to be the highest run-getters for Kolkata.

Lockie Ferguson was named as the player of the match for his tremendous performance both during the match and Super Over. Brief innings from Rahul Tripathi (23 off 16), Nitish Rana (29 off 20), and Dinesh Karthik (29* off 14) turned vital for the team. Vijay Shankar had an economical spell against Kolkata as he conceded just 20 runs. T. Natarajan got two scalps for SRH.

Chasing the target, Jonny Bairstow (36 off 28) and Kane Williamson (29 off 19) started well for SRH. The additional runs were added by David Warner as he played a significant knock of 47* off 33 and was looking to hand over the victory to his team before the game slipped into Super Over. Lockie Ferguson turned out to be pure magic for KKR as he picked three wickets during the match and two during the Super Over to restrict opponents on mere two runs. He conceded just 15 runs off his spell in four overs.

Losing skipper, David Warner said

I don’t know where to start. At the end of the day, we probably leaked a few too many in the middle overs and at the back end. For us it’s about finishing games and we’ve failed the last 2-3 occasions. Not at all in two minds about bowling first. I thought this was a nice wicket that wouldn’t change and to be fair it didn’t. 165 was about par. We lost wickets at crucial times again. Kane had to open because he had a slight niggle with his adductor. Will need some physio work.

Winning skipper, Eoin Morgan said

They’re nice to be part of, get a glimpse into what the guys are about. For Lockie to come in and perform in both phases was outstanding. We’ve been sort of striving to get wins out of the last couple of games, didn’t happen against Mumbai; today we were competitive. It’ll all depend on a lot of match-ups, what we think are the right dynamics at the time [the batting order]. Dre went off the field, we thought he was injured. He came back on and said he could bowl. I think he showed a lot of character to get us to the Super Over after not starting well. He’s a superstar player for us. Hopefully we an gather up some momentum after this.

Man of the match, Lockie Ferguson said

I think getting David Warner out especially at the start of the super over [was my favourite wicket]. It’s great having Morgs at the top off the mark with his calmness and of course I had my plan which was working throughout the game. Look we’ll take this win and enjoy tonight, it was a very good win on a tough wicket. It was nice to put the icing on the cake after the batsmen’s effort.