With Kolkata Knight Riders falling to their 5th defeat in 6 matches after losing to Gujarat Titans on Friday, skipper Ajinkya Rahane said that now they have nothing to lose and urged his team to play with freedom. “We’re thinking one game at a time. It’s tough when you lose games, but everyone is trying their best. No one wants to lose any match — we all want to win — but that’s what sport is all about… keep your heads up. For us, it’s about going out there, being positive, and playing with freedom. We’ve got nothing to lose,” he said to reporters after the match.
“Let me tell you one thing: everyone is working really hard. For us, it’s all about playing for our fans and the people of Kolkata, and we’re trying to do our best. After each and every game, there’s discussion about how we can improve. Obviously, when you lose, you tend to think about combinations and the areas we can get better at, so the discussion is always on,” he added.
The skipper also lauded KKR’s Rs 25.2 crore acquisition Cameron Green who finally came good with the bat, slamming 79 runs off 55 balls.
“It’s never easy when things are not going your way, and the courage he showed was fantastic. All credit to him. Yes, as a batting team we were thinking about 200 on this wicket. It would have been challenging, but let’s not take anything away from his innings. Attacking Rashid Khan and their fast bowlers, he was fantastic tonight for us,” he said.
The KKR skipper also admitted in the media interaction that there was a “bit of dew” but he hailed their inexperienced bowlers for taking the match till the final over.
“Special mention to our bowling unit. It’s such an inexperienced attack with just two seniors in Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, but the kind of improvement they’ve shown, especially in the last three games, has been fantastic,” said Rahane.
“Kartik Tyagi, Vaibhav Arora, and Anukul Roy have also been fantastic, bowling tough overs in the powerplay and picking up wickets. Our support staff is doing a great job of keeping the environment really good. It’s all about accepting, but we will keep trying our best,” he added.
