Probably the encounter against MI on October 16 at Abu Dhabi will go down as one of the forgettable moments for their new captain – Eoin Morgan which started off his captaincy with a loss against their arch-rivals at Abu Dhabi on Friday evening.
Being on a four-match winning streak before the encounter against KKR, it was a tough challenge for the Knight Riders to overcome the MI storm, especially after being thrashed heavily by RCB earlier in the week by 82 runs at Sharjah. Change in fortunes was on the cards for the Riders as they aim for a top-3 spot and an improvement in their NRR going ahead in the competition.
The roller-coaster journey for Morgan thereafter became more challenging as the Englishman started his dual role as captain cum match-winner for the Riders. While a one-man show from Quinton De-Kock handed KKR a successive defeat, the super-over triumph over the Sunrisers Hyderabad at Abu Dhabi owing to the magical spell from Lockie Ferguson in the match (4-0-15-3) followed by Super Over- where he grabbed both the wickets in successive deliveries which saw an unwanted record from David Warner Orange Army who registered the joint-lowest Super Over score in IPL.
He was adjudged the ‘Player of the Match’ as KKR grabbed 8 points from 9 matches. However, the joyous moment for ‘Ami KKR’ was short-lived as the team fell prey heavily to RCB-ian Mohammed Siraj who started off with 2 back-to-back wickets and also created a unique record of being the only bowler to bowl 2 maiden overs in an IPL match. Lockie Ferguson did impress yet again (4-0-17-1), but defending a mere 84 against a robust RCB batting line-up was never too easy for any team in this season.
Though the defeat didn’t displace KKR from their 4th position in the points table, as before the encounter- it certainly did dampen their NRR to the poorest after 10 encounters. With 4 matches in their kitty- the major challenge for the team will be to hold on to the Top 4 positions and thereby bet on the slightest of the possibility to qualify for the Play-offs.
Performance meter (most recent result first)- LWLLWWLWWL
Remaining encounters– vs DC (Abu Dhabi, Oct 24,2020)
vs KXIP (Sharjah, Oct 26,2020)
vs CSK (Dubai, Oct 29,2020)
vs RR (Dubai, Nov 01,2020)
