Kolkata Knight Riders’ hard-hitting opener Chris Lynn called on his team to come up with “one big performance” against Mumbai Indians on Saturday after they failed to chase down 169 and lost by 14 runs against Kings XI Punjab on Tuesday, reported PTI.
“Obviously disappointed at the loss against Kings XI, we could not get to the two points at the end of the day. If we lose the next one, we could possibly find ourselves out of the competition, that’s the challenge ahead. We need one big performance against Mumbai (in the next game),” Lynn said.
KKR are second on the table with eight wins from 13 matches. However, with just one match remaining, they are yet to seal their playoff spot.
Lynn also said that people should not expect a miracle with Kolkata’s new batting line-up even though he and Sunil Narine have demoralised opponents with their power hitting.
Before they lost to Punjab, KKR had beaten Royal Challengers Bangalore with Narine blasting the joint fastest half century in 15 balls in Indian Premier League history.
“We have got a new combination with myself and Sunil coming together and Robbie (Uthappa) coming back into the side. So, we can’t expect miracles first up with the new batting lineup,” Lynn said.
“In saying that, I think teams are pretty scared of that line-up as well. I think we have still got a lot of positives out of the game and we will be fine,” Lynn said.
Dot balls was the reason behind their loss against Punjab said Lynn. “The dot balls between the sixth and the 11th over dented our run-rate.” He, however, gave full credit the way Kings XI bowlers. “Obviously, we tried to win the match in whatever shape and form and it went down to the wire. We just lost two quick wickets and momentum is huge in cricket, as you all know, but it’s the way how it panned out,” he said.