Lockie Ferguson produced arguably the best bowling of fast bowling in IPL 2020 so far and powered the Kolkata Knight Riders home against the Sunrisers Hyderabad who was always behind in the game since the dismissal of Kane Williamson after an impressive start. Andre Russell almost let the match go away from the Knight Riders with pedestal bowling but luckily dragged the game to the super over for Ferguson to unleash his best. The kiwi paceman was too quick for David Warner on the first ball and followed up with a fast and full incoming ball to Abdul Samad and ended the luck for Sunrisers on the day.
A disappointed David Warner was clueless to pick up a single point behind the team’s defeat but blamed the lack of performances in closing out games and giving away too many runs in the middle overs as the two main reasons behind the Sunrisers’ loss against the Knight Riders.
“I don't know where to start. At the end of the day, we probably leaked a few too many in the middle overs and at the back end. For us, it's about finishing games and we've failed the last 2-3 occasions,” Warner said to the host broadcaster Star in the post-match interaction.
Reviewing his decision to bowl first after winning the toss and whether he was in some doubts about the decisions, Warner said he trusted the pitch to change a lot over the course of 40 overs, and neither did it change in his fair assessment on the nature of the pitch. “Not at all in two minds about bowling first. I thought this was a nice wicket that wouldn't change and to be fair it didn't,” Warner added.
The winning captain Eoin Morgan was ecstatic at the win after some poor performances in the last few games. He also spoke highly of Lockie Ferguson who knocked off the Sunirsers batting line up first in the main set of overs before following it up in the super over.
“For Lockie to come in and perform in both phases was outstanding. We've been sort of striving to get wins out of the last couple of games, didn't happen against Mumbai; today we were competitive,” Morgan said in the post-match presentation.
Discussing the batting positions of various batsmen in the Kolkata batting order, Morgan said that the team management is fluid about the issue and all depends on the situations in a particular match that dictates the batting order.
Morgan came in support of Andre Russell who leaked as many as 17 runs in the last over and almost lost the game before saving the match for the super over. “ Dre went off the field, we thought he was injured. He came back on and said he could bowl. I think he showed a lot of character to get us to the Super Over after not starting well. He's a superstar player for us. Hopefully, we can gather up some momentum after this,” Morgan said.
Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle was awestruck by Ferguson's exploits on the day and was of the view that the KKR management treated him like a diamond and unleashed when the situation demanded.
Aakash Chopra, too, reminded the world of Lockie Ferguson’s match-turning performance and hailed his skills to dismiss the best batsmen in the opposition line up with proper wicket-taking delivery.
Chopra also commended Abdul Samad and said that the batsman from Jammu has it in him what is needed to be successful in IPL.
Veteran cricket journalist Ayza Memon suggested that Lockie Ferguson deserves more than a man of the match trophy and that the Red Chillies Entertainment owned by the KKR owner Shahrukh Khan should offer him a lead role in a film.
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