Chris Morris was the Man of the Match for his brilliant bowling performance of 4/23 as Rajasthan Royals lifted themselves off the bottom against Kolkata Knight Riders.
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The Rajasthan Royals had entered the IPL 2021 match against Kolkata Knight Riders low on confidence. They were thrashed by 10 wickets in the game against Royal Challengers Bangalore. The side were at the bottom of the points table in IPL 2021. However, against the two-time IPL champions, Rajasthan Royals had a spring in their feet. They bowled brilliantly in the powerplay, conceding just 25 runs and taking the wicket of Shubman Gill. Rajasthan Royals did not allow partnerships to build. In the end, Chris Morris took the wickets of Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik and Pat Cummins to end with 4/23.
Speaking after the match, Morris said that the Rajasthan Royals players had plenty of fun in the powerplay which saw them get the better of Kolkata Knight Riders. “Had a lot of fun today on the field. I said to Miller it’s the most fun 7 overs I’ve ever had in my career. We were having an absolute blast. We were laughing at our coaches, singing silly songs, so it was very entertaining. The guys had a good time,” Morris said.
Apart from Morris, the rest of the bowling contributed brilliantly. Mustafizur Rahman used the cutters and variations brilliantly. Jaydev Unadkat and Chetan Sakariya kept things tight. This was in complete contrast to their performance against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Morris highlighted the motivation of the team to do well.
“We went back to the drawing board after the 10-wicket loss and we had a talk about our motivation. When we came to the Wankhede, we knew we were not playing on the 10-wicket loss pitch against RCB. The slower balls were gripping. When you see the grip, you bowl them a lot better. We were better in executing the yorkers, cutters and slower balls,” Morris said.
Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson had immense praise for the bowlers, especially Chetan Sakariya. “Our bowlers have been doing really well. There are many options for me to juggle around. Really enjoy captaining them. You could see in his eyes he wanted the competition. Sakariya is a very different kind of person. Very happy going, very chilled out. Same person inside and outside the ground. Hopefully he will win us more matches in the future,” Samson said.
The Rajasthan Royals skipper also turned his form around slightly with a solid knock. After scoring a century, Samson’s form had tapered off again. However, he scored a gritty 42 off 41 balls to get the team over the line.
“Situation of the match demands the way I play. That’s what I’ve learnt from previous years. Even if you bat and score a quick fifty you feel bad if the team doesn’t win,” Samson said.
