IPL 2023: Anything could have happened had rain not come, says Nitish Rana

Mohali, April 2 (IANS) Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Nitish Rana feels that anything could have happened in the outcome of their first match in IPL 2023 had rain not arrived and the match would have lasted for a full 40 overs.

On Saturday, at the IS Bindra PCA Stadium, Kolkata needed 45 runs off the last four overs with three wickets in hand in chasing 192 against Punjab Kings when rain arrived. But with them being seven runs behind on the DLS par score meant the two-time champions slumped to their first defeat of the season.

Moreover, the start of their chase was delayed by nearly 30 minutes due to floodlight failure.

"The over in which Venky (Venkatesh Iyer) got out, we needed to score 12 without losing a wicket. After that over, rain stopped play. Because the rain wasn't in our hands, our game plan was to achieve the DLS target over by over.

Personally, I felt that if it had been a full match, then they would have fallen one over short (in over-rate). In that case, you never know what might have happened with the result. We could have bagged the 2 points," said Rana in a video posted by the franchise on Sunday.

Though majority of Kolkata's bowlers went expensive, leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy was impressive and kept things tight with figures of 1/26 off his four overs and picked the big wicket of Punjab skipper Shikhar Dhawan.

Rana was in praise of Chakravarthy and called him his go-to bowler.

"The way the surface behaved, the kind of start we had, we controlled well (with the ball) in the middle-overs. The way Varun (Chakravarthy) bowled and how he delivered for us, I don't think I'll face any problems as to deciding where he should bowl (in the coming games). He is my go-to bowler," the KKR skipper said.

Kolkata will now play their first home game of IPL 2023 at the Eden Gardens on April 6 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Rana signed off by saying his team has it in them to bounce back after losing their opening game of the competition.

"I think there was a lot to learn. This is a marathon of matches, there are 14 games in total; not just 3 or 4. We'll talk, recollect, and hopefully we'll bounce back in the next game," he said.

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