Jacques Kallis, who played the key role in Kolkata Knight Riders five-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore here on Sunday, said it felt nice that he could help the defending champion maintain the winning momentum.
“It was a tough wicket and not easy to bat on. We needed someone to stay there and hold on. It feels good that I stuck to the task and finished it off. They (RCB) also bowled pretty well,” said Kallis, who was named the man-of-the-match.
The South African, regarded as one of the best all-rounders in the world, proved his merit scoring a 45-ball 41 after he had shone with the ball producing an outstanding spell of 4-0-17-2.
“We showed better adaptability to the conditions here compared to our opponents and that saw us come out the winner in the end,” Kallis said. When asked why KKR has not been consistent this season, Kallis said the team could not get the required momentum at the right time.
“We did not have the desired momentum this season. Many of our players were average while our opponents also made some good efforts to steal the initiative from us in many of the matches,” he said.
RCB’s left-arm spinner Murali Kartik said his side would have done well putting a score over 125 to make it more challenging.
“The wicket possibly was on the slower side and it would have been better if we had scored something around 125,” Kartik said.
“We remain in the fourth position despite the loss. This puts us in a must-win situation in our remaining two matches (against Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings), which we have the advantage of playing at home,” Kartik said.
