New Delhi, Apr 21, 2023, IANS

New Delhi, April 21 (IANS): Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Nitish Rana admitted he should have stayed longer at the crease during their batting collapse against Delhi Capitals in IPL 2023 while taking responsibility for the sides four-wicket loss at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Thursday.

In the match which began after a rain delay, Ishant Sharma, Anrich Nortje, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav took two wickets each as Delhi bowled out Kolkata for just 127. For Kolkata, Rana, along with Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, and Mandeep Singh fell without any notable contribution, with Jason R'y's 43 and Andre Russell's 38 not out taking the side to 127.

"We were 15-20 runs short, and we knew the wicket wasn't easy. I should have batted longer, and at that time, my wicket was crucial. I take the responsibility for this; I should have stood there," said Rana after the game ended.

In reply, Kolkata's bowlers, mainly the spinners Varun Chakaravarthy, Anukul Roy and Rana himself took the game to the final over before Axar Patel propelled Delhi over the line with four balls to spare. Rana noted that Delhi racing to 61/1 at powerplay got them on the road to victory.

"Credit to the bowlers, if they can even fight with this total in the upcoming games. The plan was just to delay (their win). Credit to DC too for their batting in the powerplay. That's where they won the game."

"We need to play well as a team and bowl like the way we did in this game. I'm sure we are playing well if we can fight even with such a low score. If we manage to sort these things out, we can fight better."

In the post-match press conference, Roy conceded his dismissal came at the wrong time for Kolkata, and couldn't make chasing hard for Delhi while appreciating the bowlers for their fighting spirit. "The timing of my dismissal was not great. It is never nice to get out, but when I got out, I was not even trying to hit in the air."

"I got a top edge, and it managed to get to deep square leg, which is very frustrating because I think two-three overs more, we could have gone up to 140, which would have been a harder chase."

"If we had got 15-20 runs more, they would have batted differently, and they would have taken more chances. They wouldn't have taken it so deep, and we were short with the runs, but we bowled extremely well to keep ourselves in the game," he concluded.

Kolkata have now lost three games in a row and will face Chennai Super Kings at their home ground in Eden Gardens on Sunday evening to get back to winning ways.