IPL 2018: Dinesh Karthik reveals why Sunil Narine did not open against Mumbai Indians

The Kolkata Knight Riders narrowly missed out on chasing 181 against the Mumbai Indians in Mumbai recently. At one stage in the game, they looked cruising towards the target with Robin Uthappa and Nitish Rana showing great form. However, as the game progressed, both set batsmen perished in quick succession. Later, Dinesh Karthik found himself battling a lone war to see the side home.

Karthik tried his best but ended up falling short by 13 runs. As per the recent quotes in The Telegraph, after the game, Karthik rued the poor shot selections of the KKR batsmen. He noted that Rana and Uthappa played poor shots and that took the momentum away from them in the run chase.

“The way Robin and Nitish were batting, I hoped one of them would continue till the end. That didn’t happen. They didn’t play great shots at that stage and that killed the momentum there,” Dinesh Karthik quoted.

On decision to not let Narine open

It was surprising to see Chris Lynn open with Shubman Gill in the run chase. Neither Gill nor Lynn could strike big in the powerplay. Revealing the reason why Sunil Narine did not open for KKR in the match, Dinesh Karthik pointed out that Narine was not feeling well and hence, was given the rest that he needed.

“Sunil was not feeling well, that’s why he went out of the field in the 18th-19th over and not sent out to open as well,” Karthik revealed.

On Andre Russell’s role

A lot of people thought that the Kolkata Knight Riders missed the trick by not letting Andre Russell bowl his complete quota of overs. Commenting on the same, Dinesh Karthik noted that the team management has figured out how to get the best out of Russell and hence, they have their plans reserved for him in the longer run.

“Yes, that’s true, but we have a certain role for Russell in the team and on what stage of the game he bowls. In this game, he bowled well. But on other days, he goes for boundaries. Over a period of days, we have figured out how to get the best out of him,” the KKR skipper noted.

‘Thought I could take on Bumrah’

Lastly, he revealed what was going through his mind during the final overs of the chase. Karthik noted that he backed himself to attack Bumrah in the penultimate over. But with all due credits to Bumrah, the pacer managed to get good bounce to hamper Karthik’s intentions.

“I thought I could take on Bumrah. I hit him for a couple of sixes and backed myself to get 20 in the last over. Sometimes it does not go your way. We still got 14 runs off that over, but he got good bounce. Credit to Bumrah, for he bowled really well,” Dinesh Karthik conceded.

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