IPL 2023: Credit goes to the spinners – Nitish Rana after win against CSK

Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Nitish Rana gave credit to the team’s spinners after their six-wicket win against Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Sunday. KKR was able to restrict CSK to a sub-par score of 144-6 after MS Dhoni decided to bat first by winning the toss.

However, the visitors’ spin duo of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy were able to put them in front. Narine returned with impressive figures of 2-15 in his quota of four overs and the West Indian accounted for Moeen Ali and Ambati Rayudu.

Chakravarthy, who has been in good form, also returned with decent figures of 2-36 in his four-over spell. There was help for the spinners in the first innings and the KKR spin duo was able to make the favorable conditions. In fact, this was KKR’s first win in Chennai in a long time of 11 years.

“I want to give credit to the spinners. The way they bowled, I was in doubt to give the four overs on a trot to Sunil but he said he will bowl and he scalped a wicket,” said Rana after the match.

On the other hand, Rana also gave credit to the team’s head coach Chandrakant Pandit for suggesting to use a heavy roller at the start of the innings.

“As I said in the toss too, if we do well in the three departments then we can win the match. I think the credit goes to Chandu sir as he said me to take the heavy roller; I was not in favor of that though. I felt the heavy roller might break the pitch, but it went in our way as the pitch settled after the roller was rolled,” Rana added.

Meanwhile, Nitish Rana led from the front as he scored an unbeaten knock of 57 runs from 44 balls in the run-chase. Furthermore, Rinku Singh contributed 54 runs, and the left-handed duo added 99 runs for the fourth wicket after the visitors lost three early wickets in the powerplay overs.

Kolkata Knight Riders will play their last league stage match against Lucknow Super Giants at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Saturday.