Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Ajinkya Rahane said dropped catches of Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal hurt their chances against the defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Despite the loss, Rahane lauded pacer Kartik Tyagi for his positive attitude and clear mindset.
“Yes, and I mean, Virat, we all know that while chasing the total, he is a dangerous player. Anyway, he’s a dangerous player, but Devdutt Padikkal is batting really well in this tournament. So, taking those catches, that’s what really helped us in the last four matches. But these things have happened. The guys are working really hard, but you can drop catches. That’s okay. (About Kartik Tyagi) He’s been really good for us, working really hard. What I like about him is his clear mindset, what he wants to execute while bowling. And that’s a really great sign,” Rahane said after the match.
Chasing a competitive target of 193, Kohli’s (105*) century and Devdutt Padikkal’s 39 helped RCB to an easy six-wicket win, with five balls remaining. Both the batters were dropped by the KKR fielders.
Kohli was dropped by Rovman Powell off Kartik Tyagi’s bowling, while Vaibhav Arora put down Padikkal off Cameron Green.
Rahane said 190 on the Raipur track was a competitive total while crediting the middle-order batters for their contribution.
“I mean, we thought 190 was actually a competitive total on that wicket. The batters who batted in the middle, those middle overs, they thought it was a very good total. You can always say that after the game, 10-15 runs here and there, but I thought it was a very good effort by the batters,” he added.
After the win, RCB have moved to the top of the points table while KKR’s four-match winning streak came to an end with their playoff hopes looking tricky.
