Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane admitted they were 10-15 runs short of a par score after suffering a two-wicket loss against Chennai Super Kings at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata in the ongoing IPL 2025 on Wednesday.
KKR posted 179 runs on the board after Ajinkya Rahane top-scored with 48 runs. Andre Russell scored a crucial cameo of 38 runs off just 21 balls whereas Manish Pandey scored 36 runs off 28 balls.
KKR could not finish their batting innings on a high as they could only manage 30 runs in the last four overs as Manish Pandey failed to accelerate towards the end despite being a settled batter.
On the other hand, Dewald Brevis scored 52 runs off just 25 balls and also smashed Vaibhav Arora for 30 runs in an over, which proved to be the turning point of the game. The South African had the rub of the green as he was dropped on the first ball of that over by Angkrish Raghuvanshi.
Rahane said they bowled well but feels Brevis and Shivam Dube, who scored 45 runs off 40 balls, took the game away from them.
Rahane said after the loss while talking to the official broadcasters, “It’s a tough thing to be on the losing side, I think we were 10-15 runs short. We thought 185-195 would have been an ideal total on this wicket, but I think it was a great game.”
He added, “In this format, things are bound to happen, an over (Vaibhav vs Brevis) here and there, but I think they batted really well and took their chances. Brevis and Dube they took their chances and it really paid off (for CSK.) No complaints, but I think our bowlers bowled really well. It is pretty simple, now we have to win two out of two, let’s see what happens from here on.”
Kolkata Knight Riders will next take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Saturday.
