Umesh Yadav: “My task is always to take wickets with the new ball, whether one or two. That’s the task my team has given me, and I’m trying my best to do that. I think it’s a chaseable score. The ball is skidding off the wicket a bit. On the earlier pitches, the ball was sticking on the pitch, but the ball is coming on better today.”
Kolkata Knight Riders vs Punjab Kings Highlights today, Friday 1-4-2022. 8th Match (N), Tata Indian Premier League from Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
KKR won the toss and will bat second.
Kolkata Knight Riders: team: 1 Venkatesh Iyer, 2 Ajinkya Rahane, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Sam Billings (wk), 6 Andre Russell, 7 Sunil Narine, 8 Tim Southee, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Shivam Mavi, 11 Varun Chakravarthy.
Punjab Kings team: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Mayank Agarwal (capt), 3 Bhanuka Rajapaksa (wk), 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Raj Bawa, 6 Shahrukh Khan, 7 Odean Smith, 8 Harpreet Brar, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Rahul Chahar, 11 Kagiso Rabada.
Indian Premier League 2022 Fixture
Head to head
Total matches played: 29
KKR Won: 19
PBKS Won: 10
Indian Premier League 2022 Points Table
Indian Premier League 2022 Teams
Mayank Agarwal:
“We didn’t bat well enough. That’s where it started. We showed some real fight with the ball initially but then Dre Russ came in and got going. Credit to him for that. It was a 170-ish wicket. I thought we started off well but couldn’t capitalize, a few soft dismissals. But a game like this at the start of the tournament is fine. I thought the bowlers pulled the game back really well, to get 4 wickets for 50-odd runs. But Russell took the game away from us. A lot of positives for us to take away.”
Andre Russell:
“Feeling awesome, man. This is the reason why we play the game. In that position, I know what I can do. It was good to have someone at the crease like Sam. Once I started sweating, I told him that I’m gonna go. I back my ability. I’m happy to do whatever the team requires. I’m looking to bowl in the death. We have a good amount of bowlers and a few guys that can slip in one or two as well. If I bowl two, at least I can feel like an allrounder.
But in some games, I may not bowl a ball so I’m happy to take the batting as well and hit some sixes – do whatever I can do to contribute to the team. We were a couple of wickets down and behind me was Sunil and then the other bowlers. I told Sam ‘listen, let’s bat a few overs and see what happens. But I realized the left-arm orthodox wasn’t spinning the ball. Chahar was bowling extremely well and the ball was gripping so we didn’t want to take much chance against him but I knew we’d wait on the seamers and it would get easier. [How many out of the middle?] I’m going to say one…”
Umesh Yadav beats Russell to the player-of-the-match award.
That’s his sixth POTM award against the Punjab franchise, the most by a player against a single opponent in IPL history. My language skills are sadly lacking, so my colleague Afzal Jiwani has translated for me… “[Work ethic?] In the nets, I just try to work on my skills. You can get better only if you practice. I didn’t expect Mayank to charge down the track on the very first ball. When you’re bowling at 140 clicks, your focus is to bowl the perfect line and length.”
Shreyas Iyer:
“We were stunned – we didn’t expect them to come so hard, especially losing a wicket in the first over. But when I saw them timing it so well, I thought I could as well. [Front-loading bowlers?] We got early wickets after the Powerplay so my mindset was if I get wickets as much as possible… my plan was to get the best bowlers when they had hard-hitters coming in. [Spinners?] They make my job very easy on the field.
They come up with their own strategies and in team meetings, they already know their plans. They know what they’re doing. [Dre?] It was such a relief to see him hit so clearly. Simply outstanding hitting – it was Russell muscle, for serious. [Umesh?] I was just having a chat with him. He said he’s getting older but I told him he’s getting fitter and stronger. He’s been putting in the hard yards at practice. He’s hungry and wants the team to win. He’s been a great colleague to work with.”
Match Timings: 14:00 GMT | 19:30 Local
Umpires – Anil Chaudhary, Saiyed Khalid
TV Umpires – Jayaraman Madanagopal
Match Referee – Prakash Bhatt
Reserve Umpire – Akshay Totre
Match number – Tata IPL 2022 – Seasone 15, 8th Match
