IPL 2022: McCullum blame 'silly mistakes' for KKR's loss in thrilling clash against RR
Apr 19, 2022
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 19 : After facing a defeat by seven runs against Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders head coach Brendon McCullum pointed out 'silly mistakes' as the reason for his side's loss.
Jos Buttler's 103-run knock, his second of the season, and Chahal's five-wicket haul, which also included a hat-trick, powered Rajasthan Royals to a thrilling seven-run win against Kolkata Knight Riders here at the Brabourne Stadium.
"With four overs to go, we were in the driver's seat but then some silly mistakes and not being able to handle pressure as well as we should have cost us the game. From our point of view, we've had three losses in a row and we're going to have to find a way to keep our morale high which is so vitally important," said McCullum in a post-match press conference.
"There can be a tendency to run away from things when you haven't got across the line in a couple of key games. We just have to keep pushing ourselves, make sure we stick together and stay composed. We've been there before and it's going to test us again this time," he added.
Rajasthan spinner Yuzvendra Chahal took a hattrick and completely crushed Kolkata's hopes of chasing the mammoth target of 218.
"We were trying to hold Pat Cummins for the seamers. Chahal has had a number on him on a number of occasions. Mavi's role was to get through that. Unfortunately, we weren't able to execute what we were meant to do there and we made a mistake. You can't allow good players like Chahal to enter the game when there's pressure on. We played a good game but just made a couple of silly mistakes. But that's what happens sometimes. Jos Buttler got a hundred on their side, Yuzi Chahal got a five-for including a hat-trick and we lost by seven runs, so we played a good game but ran second," said the KKR coach.
"We had talked extensively leading into the game about how he was such a threat and we didn't want to give him wickets in key moments in games. If we had our time again, we'd have looked to play that over differently and we saw the impact he can have against the seamers in the last couple of overs with the ball sliding on," he added.
The match was a cliff-hanger where the pendulum swung from one team to another as Kolkata Knight Riders were sailing through at one stage reaching the triple-figure mark in just 8.3 overs with Shreyas Iyer and Aaron Finch batting at the crease. But wickets from Chahal, Ashwin and Prasidh Krishna brought Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan Royals back in the game.
Obed McCoy bowled the final over of the match with KKR needing 11 runs with two wickets in hand but the left-arm pacer dismissed Sheldon Jackson and Umesh Yadav to guide Rajasthan to the fourth win of the season.
