Bengaluru, May 2: Kolkata Knight Riders Head Coach Brendon McCullum on Monday said losing 5 games on the bounce is not easy and complimented his team for the way they played tonight against Rajasthan Royals. The Kiwi praised Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh, two great buddies, for their match-winning and unbeaten 66 runs partnership for the 4th wicket that took the game away from the dangerous Rajasthan Royals. “The guys have stuck together and been realistic. Rana was out in the middle and that gave him (Rinku) a lot of confidence in his company,” he said at the post-match ceremony here. Anukul was brilliant, who has been around in the IPL for a long time, is also similar to Rinku, who carries himself well and has a good future ahead of him, McCullum said. “It (opening) is an area where we need to tidy up. We have been off in the powerplay compared to the other teams,” he added. KKR won the match by 7 wickets after chasing the 153-run target set by RR, batting first. On forcing a couple of changes, McCullum said the selection role is really important for him as a couple of players had lost their form and few others suffered injuries. “We wanted five bowlers and with the pitch on the slower side, Anukul (Roy) came in,” he stated. “We wanted (Shivam) Mavi in the team. He (Rinku) has been in the franchise for a long period of time. Lucky enough to spend some time with him. He needed to make a statement and he made it in the first game itself,” McCullum added. (UNI)
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