Kolkata Knight Riders captain Dinesh Karthik hailed the fine display by Chris Gayle and K.L. Rahul and said his team had a “bad day” being unable to find a solution against the explosive batting by the Kings XI Punjab openers.
“It was a bad day for us. I fell it was not about (Chris) Gayle alone, K.L. (Rahul) also played a fabulous knock,” Karthik said, referring to the 116-run opening wicket stand.
Despite having one of the best combination of spinners in his side, Karthik said it was difficult to stop Gayle. “There is not a pattern to get him (Gayle) out that teams have found out yet. He is batting really well, you’ve got to accept that,” Karthik said.
Let down by bowlers
Admitting that run-making became a bit slow towards the end, the KKR captain said the team was let down by the bowlers. “I feel 191 was a little less. We could have got 10-12 runs more, but you can’t expect the tailenders to do it. More importantly, we did not bowl well enough to defend it,” Karthik said.
The KKR captain renewed his support for the VJD method as a better alternative for the current DLS method. “I have always thought that the VJD has proven to be a really good method in domestic tournaments. Why not think about VJD here and promote it in IPL?” asked Karthik, adding that the DLS method had a lot of shortcomings.
King’s XI batsman Mayank Agarwal termed his team’s win a concerted effort. “(Chris) Gayle brings in a lot of firepower, but with (K.L.) Rahul batting equally well, it has strengthened our opening.
“If you have a good opening stand, it always gives an advantage over the opposition,” Mayank said.
