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Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Shreyas Iyer said it was important to win the toss against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday as the teams batting first in Pune, have a winning record.
Russell scored unbeaten 49 runs with the bat and took three wickets with the ball to guide Kolkata Knight Riders to a 54-run win against Sunrisers Hyderabad here at MCA Stadium in Pune on Saturday. "The mindset we came up with in this game was simply outstanding. All the boys did the right things, they played fearless cricket. It was really important to win the toss. The teams batting first have won a lot of matches in Pune. Everything panned out really well. We were going over by over. The plan was to give Russell the strike as much as possible. We knew Washi had one over left, that was the over we were going to target. Sam was also giving that support," said Shreyas in a post-match presentation. "It worked out pretty well, hope it works out for us in the final game as well. It was an over-par total. Sunil and Varun stepped-up on this slow wicket, they bowled smart and got crucial wickets. We never let them to get under our skins, kudos to that. We don't have anything to lose right now. We haven't played our A-game so far in the league, that's what I spoke today before the match started," he added. Earlier, Shreyas had given a statement about KKR's CEO Venky Mysore being involved in the team's selection. This statement faced a lot of criticism on social media. Regarding this, the KKR skipper said, "Also I want to clarify from the last interview. When I took the CEO's name, I wanted to say that he's there to console the players who've been sitting out. It's tough for us as well when we select the team." Coming to the match, Russell (49), and Sam Billings (34) shone with the bat and posted a target of 178 runs against KKR. Later, Russell scalped three wickets while Tim Southee returned with two wickets and restricted SRH at 123/8, and registered a 54-run win. (ANI)
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