MUMBAI: After playing a match-winning knock against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Friday, Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder Andre Russell expressed that he felt ‘awesome’ about his performance.
Andre Russell’s unbeaten knock of 70 from 31 balls helped KKR score 141/4 in 14.3 overs in reply to PBKS 137 to register a six-wicket victory and make a mockery of the chase here at Wankhede Stadium on Friday.
“Feeling awesome, 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 who can rotate and help us stick through the tough time. Once I started sweating, I just said that I am gonna go. I backed my ability and that’s what I did tonight. I am happy to bring the team over the line. I am happy to do whatever the team requires. I am looking to bowl in the death. If the captain wants me to bowl one in the powerplay, I am more than happy to do that but we have a good amount of bowlers,” said Russell in a post-match presentation.
“We have a few guys that can actually chip in one or two as well. I know in some games I won’t be bowling four but if at least I bowl two overs, I can feel a part of the game and feel like an all-rounder. These things do happen, some games it’s gonna be easy and I may not bowl a ball. I am happy to take the batting as well, hit some sixes, and do whatever I can do to contribute for the team. We were a couple of wickets down, behind me was Sunil and then the other bowlers,” he added.
KKR was struggling at 51/4 before Russell stitched a brilliant partnership with Sam Billings and took his side to the victory.
“I knew we were the two guys who’ll definitely look to get a partnership. I told Sam, ‘listen, let’s just bat a few overs and see what happens.’ But we had to attack earlier because the left-arm orthodox wasn’t spinning the ball and nothing was happening. So we decided to take charge from one end and look to get singles from the other end. Chahar was bowling extremely well, it was gripping as well. We didn’t want to take much chance against him. We knew it’d get easier,” said Russell.
PBKS were bowled out for a modest 137 in 18.2 overs as Umesh Yadav bagged four wickets for 23 runs to earn the ‘Player of the Match’ award.
Punjab started off aggressively despite losing their captain Mayank Agarwal in the very first over to Umesh Yadav but Bhanuka Rajapaksa’s 31-run knock-off 9 balls helped 2014 finalists reach the 50-run mark in just 4.4 overs.
The two-time champions KKR got wickets at regular intervals and did not allow any partnership to flourish.
Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy bowled eight overs among themselves and conceded only 37 runs with Chakravarthy conceding only 14 in his four overs. (ANI)
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