IPL 2020: Match 8 – SRH vs KKR – Who Said What

Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad came forward to set the action for the eighth match of Indian Premier League 2020. Both the teams walked up confidently despite their respective loss in their last match. Choosing to show up with willow first, David Warner and his men could put up ordinary 142 on board. Young Shubman Gill’s terrific knock of 70* off 62 helped KKR get over the line comfortably as they clinched victory by seven wickets.

Shubman Gill was eventually awarded the player of the match honour for his match-winning knock. Manish Pandey’s 51 off 38 and Warner’s 36 off 30 pushed Hyderabad to cross the 140 mark. Pat Cummins dominated the bowling show from Kolkata Knight Riders after plucking a wicket and setting up an impressive economy of 4.80. Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Andre Russell scalped one wicket each in order to boost their team.

KKR opened their account in the points table

Chasing the low scoring total, Nitish Rana (26 off 13) and Eoin Morgan (42 off 29) also contributed well to the team’s account. Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan were perfect in their bowling attack but couldn’t change the result for their team. With a much-needed victory, KKR bagged two points and opened their account on the points table.

Losing skipper, David Warner said

I think I got my decision right. For us, our strength is death bowling. I thought it was actually a difficult wicket to accelerate on. I don’t regret what I did at the beginning of the game and I stick by my decision. Cummins bowled Test match line and length. There was a little bit of movement. It got harder in the middle. We went four or five overs for 20 probably killed us a bit there. Extra 30 or 40 runs would have been great. We have to go harder at the top. Can’t help if the bowlers are bowling right lines and lengths.

We need to push as hard as we can. You can see from our running between the wickets, we do do that. But, we got to improve our boundary percentage. I saw, I think 35 dot balls, which not acceptable in T20 cricket on a wicket that was actually nice to bat on. We just mis-executed in the middle. Not sure (when asked about Manish Pandey’s injury), hopefully, bit of a cramp.

Winning skipper, Dinesh Karthik said

Always good to get on board. We have been working really hard. I think one of the advantages of having all-rounders and it is a privilege to use them whenever I can. The fact that we have been able to groom the youngsters is pleasing. It feels good to see the youngsters doing well. I want Gill to enjoy his journey in cricket. One duck doesn’t make you a bad player. I need to probably up my game and get a few runs.

Man of the match, Shubman Gill said

I think the ball wasn’t spinning much and was easy to hit down the ground. I have practiced power hitting in the last couple of years. I think it was important for us to win. We bowled really and we had to back it up with a good performance. There weren’t any long conversations with Morgan. We were just trying to anticipate what the bowlers can try and do. As an opener it is my duty to see my team through.