KKR coach Kallis admits KKR were not up to mark against Punjab

Jacques Kallis, the head coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders, on Thursday admitted that KKR did not perform to the best of the abilities in their previous encounter against the Kings XI Punjab, losing by 14 runs. Chasing a gettable target of 168 at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali, the visitors could not go past 153/6 despite Chris Lynn scoring a 52-ball 84.

“We let ourselves down in the last game. We got off to a great start and I think the platform has been well set throughout the season. We have had very good starts and most of the times we have converted them. In the last game, like I said, we let ourselves down,” Kallis said at an event in Kolkata.

KKR, No. 2 on the points table with 16 points from 13 matches, have just 1 match of their league stage matches left, which they will play against the Mumbai Indians at home. When asked what went wrong for KKR in the last game, the South African explained that T20 is the kind of format in which you cannot win all the games.

“In T20 cricket, you don’t win all matches. There are hard totals that you chase down… and easy totals that you can’t chase down. So you gotta plan for that. We will take some valuable lessons going into the next game”

KKR have won the trophy twice, once in 2012 and then in 2014. Ever since Gautam Gambhir took over as the captain, the team’s fortunes have changed and they have been performing consistently almost every year and reaching the playoffs.

Openers Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine have been performing brilliantly for the team, and making up for the deficit caused by Andre Russell’s absence caused down the order. With their qualification still not confirmed, they would want to finish their home campaign on a winning note and give the supporting Eden crowd reasons to celebrate.