Dinesh Karthik owns up his mistake after KKR's Qualifier 2 defeat

Kolkata Knight Riders started off their chase in the Qualifier 2 on Friday at Eden Gardens well enough but lost their way in the middle overs. A lion’s share of that credit goes Sunrisers Hyderabad leg-spinner Rashid Khan, who has repeatedly proved his mettle on the field in this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) and won the hearts of a billion people.

As for KKR, openers Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine gave the team and the fans a real hope of reaching the finals, with a 40-run partnership in only 3.2 overs. But the wickets soon started to fall in quick successions. Rashid bagged 3 important scalps of Lynn, Andre Russell and Robin Uthappa, and was also involved in the run out of Nitish Rana, while Shakib scalped the wicket of the captain, Dinesh Karthik.

In the post-match presentation, Karthik admitted to his fault as he couldn’t hang in there at the crease and see to the team home. Being a key cog in the middle order with the willow, a lot of responsibility was on his shoulders. But the formidable spin-attack of the Sunrisers Hyderabad, spearheaded by Rashid, made his team bend the knee.

Hard to digest

“It’s hard to digest. We played a good tournament. But to finish on the losing side doesn’t feel good. We had the game during the chase, but a couple of bad shots and one run-out changed the course of the game. Me, Nitish and Robin should have finished it off, but me not carrying it through is a mistake on my part. Plenty of positives, youngsters have grabbed their opportunities and done quite well so that’s great for the franchise,” Karthik said in the post-match presentation.

The conditions were not looking good at the beginning for the Orange Army either. Being sent into bat first by DK, they got off to a slow start, managing 56 from 7 overs when the first wicket of Shikhar Dhawan fell. It was quite a horror-show for the visitors after that, as wickets kept falling one after the other.

With the dismissal of Yusuf Pathan, it seemed like KKR would have an easier target to chase on their home ground than they expected. But Rashid was the game-changer here too. His stunner of an innings of 34 from 10 included 4 sixes and a couple of boundaries, and it took the SRH total to a respectable 174.

KKR fell 14 short of that in the end. SRH will go up against CSK in the final on Sunday at the Wankhede in Mumbai. They lost to the Yellow Brigade in the first Qualifier but will look forward to turning the tables this time.

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