Before the toss.
Nitish Rana:
“The atmosphere has been good. Our captain has said there’s nothing to lose and we are playing more freely as a result. It’s a young side, and we spoke ahead of the tournament that we might be able to make an impression if we play aggressive cricket. [On opening] In the second half, the opening stand between Venkatesh Iyer and Shubman Gill has been really good. I don’t think there’s a better Indian opening pair. There’s spin in these pitches, and there’s also a bit of humidity around. Spin will definitely make an impact.”
Ruturaj Gaikwad on his CSK experience:
“It’s been good. There are lots of senior players and there’s so much to learn from them. (On MS) There’s something new to learn every day from him. There’s no day when you don’t feel goosebumps, but now I am getting used to it. The grounds are bigger than in India, the dimensions are slightly bigger. The heat and humidity also make it a bit more challenging.”
Lockie Ferguson, on the influence of Brendon McCullum on this team:
“Last year, we saw that hard lengths are difficult to get away from. We’ll just have to adjust and take it from there. Really enjoyed being a part of the brand. As a Kiwi, I know Baz’s brand of cricket pretty well. We just have to take on every challenge thrown at us.”
Faf du Plessis,
who actually remembers that the last time he was in Abu Dhabi was when he was involved in that horrific concussion that he says still causes him some discomfort around his neck, speaks about how CSK are approaching this season based on learnings from 2020: “Last time we were in Dubai, we needed to make some improvements. We bat a lot deeper now, and we keep attacking from the outset. If you see guys like Rayudu and Moeen, they keep attacking from the word go and put the pressure on the opposition and it makes it easier for us. We haven’t played in the day during this leg yet. We will need to assess and then take it from there.”
Kolkata Knight Riders vs Chennai Super Kings Highlights today, Sunday 26-09-2021 – 38th Match, Indian Premier League season 14th from Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi.
KKR won the toss and chose to bat.
Kolkata are unchanged. Morgan reckons the pitch will slow up a bit as the game wears on. For Dhoni, Sam Curran is in for Dwayne Bravo.
IPL 2021 Points Table
Kolkata Knight Riders team: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (capt), Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy.
Chennai Super Kings team: Ruturaj Gaekwad, Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (capt) (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Josh Hazlewood.
Match Timings: 10:00 GMT | 14:00 Local
Umpires – Chris Gaffaney, Tapan Sharma
TV Umpires – Virender Sharma
Match Referee – Narayanan Kutty
Reserve Umpire – Ulhas Gandhe
Match number – Indian Premier League 2021 Match No 38th
Eoin Morgan:
“Both sides batted well. Both bowled really well. Can’t fault anything from our side. The second half of the tournament has been a lot of positives for our side. We just have to give ourselves the best chance. [On Prasidh for the 19th over] Sunil takes the responsibility. I hope Dre [Russell] is ok. The whole tournament has an abundance of top-class international circketers. Some of the local Indian guys haven’t even been capped yet. When Jadeja plays like that, similar to Sam Curran for England, I don’t think there’s a lot to do. [On holding back Varun Chakravarthy] All about matchups. Your bowlers need to bowl well enough to do that.”
Ruturaj Gaikwad:
“[On opening with Faf] The opening stand is always crucial. We managed to do it today. If one of us had stayed till the 12th or 13th over, it would have prevented this game from coming closer. The senior players are used to these conditions and situations. If this had been a Super Over, I might have needed to bat, so I was really nervous around the last ball. After every game that we win, we do have celebrations.”
Post match presentation
MS Dhoni:
“It’s a nice victory to have. At times you play good cricket and you lose. It is enjoyable when you don’t do so well and still win. It was good cricket from both sides and a pleasure for the spectators. We bowled well in patches. It’s not easy for the fast bowlers. We tried to give them short spells. 170 was a par score, I felt.
When Jadeja was bowling, it was coming on and not stopping. The way we started, KKR deserves some applause for making a game out of it. We were also worried about how the wicket will be. When you keep playing on a wicket, groundsmen sometimes water it more and leave some more grass. [On six wins in a row in UAE] The important thing was to make the most of what we had learned and to come back stronger.”
Ravindra Jadeja is the player of the match. Says:
“It is difficult. After you have played five-day cricket and then come to white-ball cricket, I was working on my bat swing. I wanted to repeat whatever I was doing. The runs in the second-last over turned out to be the match-winning over for us. But Rutu and Faf gave us a good start. You need to be collective as a unit, whether with bat or ball. I was just backing my strength. He was bowling with fine-leg and square-leg up. I thought he would bowl full outside off, and slow short ball. I thought he would give one ball up, and luckily I connected well.”
