MI vs KKR, IPL 2022: After the win over Mumbai Indians on Monday, Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Shreyas Iyer said that the team “CEO is also involved in team selection”
- Vishesh Roy
Kolkata Knight Riders returned to winning ways after defeating Mumbai Indians by 52 runs at Dr DY Patil Sports Academy on Monday to move to seventh place in the IPL points table. Pat Cummins returned with three wickets after KKR posted 165 for nine. After the win, KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer revealed how difficult it is to tell the players that they are not a part of the playing XI and he also said that the “CEO (Venky Mysore) is involved in team selection”.
“It is really difficult because I was also in that position once when I started playing the IPL. We discussed with the coaches and obviously, the CEO is also involved in team selection so especially, Baz (Brendon McCullum), he goes to the players and tells them. To be honest, all of them are very supportive in the decision making and the way they turn up to the ground and support each and every individual, it is something to be proud of as captain and I am really happy with how we played today,” Iyer said at the post-match presentation.
Talking about the win against Mumbai Indians, Iyer said: “Yeah, definitely. If you see the matches we lost previously, especially the last game, we lost by a big margin and coming back, winning by a margin is really satisfying and that’s what we were looking for. We obviously got a great start in the powerplay and from there on, Nitish came on, he took some time at the start but the way he hit sixes off Pollard, he saw that was the right over to take on and he did that.”
“But I personally felt that it was difficult for the new batters to come in and keep going. They needed few balls to get set and once you know how the wicket is playing, you can easily capitalise so today, I felt, that was the chat we had,” he added.
Batting first, KKR posted 165/9 in 20 overs. Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana scored 43 runs each. At one stage, KKR were cruising at 123/2 in the 13th over, but from there on, Jasprit Bumrah wreaked havoc as he went on to register his best bowling figures in the IPL — 5/10.
No Mumbai Indians batter was able to stay at the crease for the long haul, and in the end, they were bundled out for 113. Cummins took three wickets while Andre Russell took two.