Six teams have started their IPL 2021 campaign and now only two teams remain who are yet to begin their journey in this year's IPL. These two teams are Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals. The clash between the Kings and the Royals takes place tomorrow at the Wankhede stadium. Join us for the coverage of that match. For now, we shall take your leave. Good-night!
KKR's Nitish Rana clinches the Player of the Match award for his inning of 80 from 56 balls in which he hit nine fours and 4 sixes. His inning was instrumental in KKR posting 18/7.
Nitish Rana, Player of the Match:I thought the ball was in my slot so I went for it and luckily got four off my first ball. In my mind there's only one thing: play my shots if the ball is there. Today I just backed myself. I have played a lot of spin growing up.
Eoin Morgan, KKR captain: I am delighted. The build-up to the tournament has been pretty good. In the camp that we had pre-tournament, the guys gelled well. Never quite sure what performance they will produce. Today was quite magnificent the way the guys batted. Guys at the top of the order. Nitish and Tripathi were absolutely outstanding and set up the game for our middle order to play in the manner we want to play. Certainly the bowling, we couldn't have asked for a better start. Chopped and changed a bit in the powerplay. Wouldn't say that. A huge amount of structure goes into the decisions on the field. Have got a fantastic head coach in McCullum. Great backroom staff. The main job is to get the best out of the squad. IPL is all about the results. Guys buying into what we want to do. Bhajji starting really well in the first overand then not playing a part but using his experience to get around the guys in the game shows the selflessness in the side. Nice to start like this it's obviously a long tournament. We were very happy with the score. We thought if we bowled half-decently we should get over the line.
David Warner, SRH captain:I didn't think there were that many runs on this wicket. They adapted really well, had a good partnership. We failed to execute the first ball of most overs and then conceded a lot at the end. We lost early wickets, and Jonny and Manish got us in a good position, so we had our chances. The dew made a difference. If the bowlers overpitched, it was easy to hit it, and with the height in their team, and with the cross-seam, it stopped a little bit on us. We would like to have won the first game, but we have four more games at this venue and hopefully we will get used to the square and the dimensions of this ground.