We are finally playing the brand of cricket we wanted: Morgan

Prior to the halt of the tournament in May, Kolkata Knight Riders’ head coach Brendon McCullum clearly mentioned that there was a need for a change in approach from the Knights. While the postponement of the tournament put the brakes on their progress, the restart gave them plenty of hopes.

In Venkatesh Iyer, KKR finally found an opener who complimented Shubman Gill’s style of batting as the two have already started to turn the fortune around for the Knights. With 41* and 53, Iyer has already shown that he fits perfectly in KKR’s desired style of cricket.

KKR’s skipper Eoin Morgan, in the post-match presentation, revealed that the team has finally started playing the brand of cricket that the leadership group of the franchise had desired. He also added that the management had tried a lot to fit Iyer in the side but were unable to in the first half.

"Its been a long time since we've played like this. Baz has taken over for almost two seasons, so the way we are playing is now getting into his style. To hold such a strong Mumbai team, and chase it down in the manner we did gives us confidence. We were trying to fit Iyer into the XI with a lot of talented guys, and its fantastic with the manner he has scored runs. We never put a number on him, on how many games he will get,” Morgan stated.

On the bowling front, Morgan credited the partnership between Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, who picked up one wicket in between them but only conceded 42 runs from 8 overs, a period that helped the Knights. 

“In the practice games he has gone out to play this way. Baz backs him to the hilt. Just a second game for him but played with full confidence. Sunil and Varun are formidable bowlers. Sunil has been integral in winning KKR championships in the past. Varun is a fresh guy. The first two games in this second phase has been a great template for us to play. There's only one way for us to go in the points table, and that's up," he concluded.

Sunil Narine was deemed as the Player of the Match, for his incredible spell of 1/20, where he left the Mumbai batsmen clueless. Speaking at the post-match presentation, the Windies mystery spinner reckoned that he had put a lot of work into the new action before the tournament. 

“I'm coming off a good amount of cricket in the CPL and The Hundred. It's getting better and better. It has taken me a while with this new action and I have put in a lot of work into it. Getting Rohit out in any form of cricket is good; he is a key wicket for Mumbai,” Narine stated.

On his spin partner Varun, Narine opened up that the Indian spinner is keen on learning new aspects of the game and a quick-learner, which the Windies spinner believes will take him to further heights. 

“Varun is someone who likes to know about the game and he likes to know what will happen. He is a quick learner and he has far to go. I wouldn't say this pitch was sticky. It was flat but not as flat as last year. My batting depends on what my team requires, if they want to go at the top or at the end, I'll do it.”