Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday did whatever was in their hands to keep their hopes of making it to the IPL 2020 play-offs alive and won a crucial encounter against the Rajasthan Royals by 60 runs.
Kolkata, who were the bottom-ranked team ahead of the match are sitting on the 4th spot in the points table now.
It was a must-win game and the franchise brought back their key all-rounder Andre Russell for the encounter.
Russell, who had missed the previous few games due to a hamstring tear, said it was tough to do rehab everyday but he was glad to be playing again.
“It’s a good feeling to be back on the field. It’s been a tough two weeks doing rehab. But, I’m happy that I’m back. It’s a grade two hamstring tear which usually takes 8 weeks to heal. The scan was very ugly. With KKR physio and doctors around me, it helped,” Russell said after the match.
The Jamaican seemed to get a good start with the bat, but perished soon after hitting two consecutive sixes when he holed out one in the deep. He scored a quickfire 25 runs off 11 balls.
He admitted that this has not been a great season for him and said that as soon as he feels that he is getting a start, he ends up getting dismissed.
“As soon as I start to sweat and my blood’s getting hot, I’m ready to go, you know, I get out. It’s unfortunate. But the confidence is there,” Rusell said.
He was unable to bowl on Sunday due to his injury and said that it was a call taken by the team.
“When it (hamstring) is feeling good, that’s when it’s healing. We have a good bowling (attack), so I can chip in with the yorkers at the death, but for now I’m going to take one game at a time.”
