'Eoin Morgan said that they will play with positive intent but it didn't look like that' - Virender Sehwag after KKR's improbable defeat

Kolkata Knight Riders’ improbable defeat against Mumbai Indians in the 5th league game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has caught everyone by surprise. A game that they completely dominated for over 30 overs was eventually allowed to slip out from their hands as they fell to their 22nd defeat against the Mumbai franchise in the history of the IPL.

After Eoin Morgan asked MI to bat first, his bowlers did an exceptional job to restrict them to a below-par total of 152. More surprisingly, MI went onto lose all of their wickets in the process of getting to the score, while as many as seven wickets fell in the last five overs.

During the chase, they got off to flying start as both Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill looked at ease during their 72-run opening stand. At the halfway mark, none could have imagined the collapse that awaited as KKR lost one batsman after another and fell trapped. Branding their approach careless, former West Indies captain Brian Lara also bashed and raised questions.

The way they batted, it felt like they planned to take the game till the end. But that didn’t happen: Virender Sehwag

Much like Lara, former Indian opener, Virender Sehwag, was also left shocked looking at the way KKR approached the chase as they only needed 31 runs from 30 balls, with two of their most trusted finishers in Andre Russell and Dinesh Karthik in the middle.

However, Russell scored 9 off 15 balls while Karthik was unbeaten on 8 off 11 balls with no boundaries to his name. Sehwag felt that both the batsmen wanted to stay till the end but could not finish the game.

“Eoin Morgan had given a statement that they will play that way (with positive intent) after the first game but it didn’t look like that when Andre Russell and Dinesh Karthik came in to bat. The way Russell and Karthik batted, it felt like they planned to take the game till the end and win it. But that didn’t happen. The batters who came before them – be it Shakib Al Hasan, Eoin Morgan, Shubman Gill, or Nitish Rana – all of them played with positive intent,” Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.

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