Wanted Narine to open but was forced to send him at No.7: Karthik

Narine, who has opened in almost all of KKR’s matches, was sent in at No.7 on Sunday and surprisingly, Karthik believed that it was not possible for Narine to hit Bumrah with five fielders on the boundary. Then why didn’t KKR open with Narine, like they have doing for the better part of the tournament?

In the penultimate over of the chase, when Knight Riders needed 31 runs off 18 balls, captain Dinesh Karthik refused to take a single. He was not batting with the tail. Sunil Narine – the one, who is amongst the top five impactful batsman’s list in the current edition of IPL was at the non-striker's end. The problem however, was Narine’s batting position.

Narine, who has opened in almost all of KKR’s matches, was sent in at No.7 on Sunday and surprisingly, Karthik believed that it was not possible for Narine to hit Bumrah with five fielders on the boundary. Then why didn’t KKR open with Narine, like they have doing for the better part of the tournament?

Karthik himself, reveled the reason at the post-match press conference. KKR were actually forced to change the opening combination, as Narine was not feeling well after fielding in the first innings.

"He was not feeling well, that's why he went out of the field in the 18th-19th over," said Karthik.

KKR started the run-chase with youngster Shubman Gill partnering Chris Lynn and the team slumped to 28 for two at the start of the fourth over.

The partnership between Uthappa and Rana did get them back in the match but once the pair was separated, the pressure of the asking rate became too much even for the likes of Karthik and Russell.

In the end, KKR fell short by 13 runs and their slow start was one of the main reasons behind their defeat.

Karthik also defended his move in not giving Andre Russell, who was brought on as the seventh bowler, his full quota of four overs in spite of taking a wicket each in his first two overs.

"Yes, that's true but we have a certain role for Russell in the team on what stage of the game he bowls. On this day he bowled well but on other days he goes for boundaries.

"Over a period of days we have figured out how to get the best out of him," said the wicketkeeper-batsman.

Karthik praised Jasprit Bumrah for upsetting his plans in the 19th over of the run-chase with some good death bowling.

"I thought I could take on Bumrah, hit him for a couple of sixes and backed myself to get 20 in the last over. Sometimes it does not go your way. (We) still got 14 runs off that over. He got good bounce. Credit to Bumrah, he bowled well."