KKR vs CSK: Shubman Gill Maiden fifty helped Kolkata Knight Riders to Register their fifth win of the season

Shubman Gill anchored Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to a six-wicket win against Chennai Super Kings in their Indian Premier League (IPL 2018) match at Eden Gardens.

Kolkata Knight Riders go up the ladder – now reach the third position. Chennai, with six wins, have struggled with the ball of late. They’ve certainly missed the services of Chahar. Jadeja’s position will once again come under scanner. We’ll have that debate another day. Tomorrow, Kings XI Punjab host Mumbai Indians. Do join us there. Until then, it’s goodbye from Abhinand Raghavendran, Nikhil Jadhav, Sriram, Raju Peethala, Sagar Chawla, Varun and Harish.

Sunil Narine, Man of the Match: I’ll stick to my bowling (when asked if he was a batting all-rounder or bowling all-rounder). That made me the cricketer I am today. Nice to come out with a win. Getting the freedom to play my shots, being free. That’s the key. They back me whatever happens. He (DK) relies highly on spin. It’s a total team effort. Seamers did the job early and we finished it off. Everyone takes their success differently. For me, it’s to be as humble as possible,. I am enjoying my game with good performances.

Dinesh Karthik: Credit to the franchisee. They picked lot of under-19 players. They are really skilled players. It’s little harsh on him (Gill). The number of times, he’s been able to hit boundary off the first ball. That boy is special. I don’t want to hype it up and put extra pressure on him. I can see a lot of years of India Blues in him. I picked it up early, that we can bowl a lot of spin on this wicket. Our bowlers are so confident. They wanted to bowl. You need to be pushing boundaries. He (Narine) is a thorough all-rounder. Provides impetus at the top and also bowled the pressure overs. He’s a great player to have in the team.

MS Dhoni: If the wicket remained the same the total was decent, I felt this wicket was on the slower side but you have to hit the seam hard. When you are bowling the slower ball, if you can hit the seam then you can generate variable bounce. In the second half wicket became much better under the lights. The easy way is to compare the two balls after 20 overs. Second ball will be in the better shape. Ball was coming nicely under the lights. Overall disappointed with the loss, we need to do better than this in the bowling department. A few more runs would have helped. We knew the kind of fielding we will do after the team was picked. But what is more disappointing is guys are not aware on the field. Your speed might not be too much but you have to be attentive in the field. Classic example is Hussey, when he was playing for CSK he was not the quickest but he used to anticipate really well and that used to give him extra second. That is the kind of commitment needed in the field. If no one is bowling well, keep shuffling bowlers around. If no one does well, game will be over soon. We are slightly on and off in the field. Keeping it simple helps, I think bowlers need to vary their pace and you need to be aware of the strengths of the batsmen and accordingly you need to bowl. You can tell bowler a lot but when they have ball in the hand they are on their own.

Shubman Gill: Obviously I am pleased to have been promoted to number 4 today. We were just talking (Himself and DK) that we need to rotate the strike in the middle overs, it was crucial to see off the spinners. It was not really to target him (Asif), we played according to the merit – if the balls were there, we just went for it. KKR crowd is the best crowd, they always support us. It has been a really great experience so far and when you are coached by Kallis and Katich, you have so much to learn from them.