Mumbai: Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) assistant coach Simon Katich has admitted that tension prevailed and the dynamic within the team’s camp changed after the side suffered a string of losses in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League.
He said that the team needs to work as a group on the issue. “Can’t hide from the fact that there was tension. That was pretty evident from the last few games after we got on a bit of a roll with losses. We’ve got to address that as a group. What is so important in the IPL is the dynamic within the group and I guess the unity,” Katich told reporters on Monday.
“That’s something that KKR is very very proud of. It’s a very successful franchise and it’s something that everyone involved has worked very very hard to contribute to over a long period of time. That’s something we have to certainly work at to get better at it because there’s no doubt that throughout this campaign, the dynamic within our group has certainly changed,” he added.
KKR was not able to make it to the playoffs of the IPL this year as they suffered a loss in a must-win match against Mumbai Indians on Sunday. After being asked to bat first, KKR were 49 for no loss, but the team stumbled in the later overs and they were restricted to just 133 for seven.
Mumbai Indians had no problems in chasing down the target and they easily secured the win by nine wickets. Katich was seen addressing the poor record KKR has at Wankhede Stadium and he felt that maybe the team got what they deserved. “It did go wrong, that’s for sure. Today is obviously disappointing but it’s a tough ask coming to Mumbai, we don’t obviously have a great record here. Yes, it would have been great to win today and get through but to finish where we did is probably what we deserved given how our season went,” Katich said.
KKR started this year’s IPL on a promising not, but the team fell off the wagon in later stages. The team had won four matches out of their first five games, but the team suffered straight six losses after that. “We had a very good start but it fell away badly through that middle phase of the tournament. If you look back on our season, the two missed opportunities we had were in the matches against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals,” Katich said.
“We hadn’t played well through the season but to lose those two games was always going to come back and hurt us in the end. When you look back, in the end, that’s what probably catches up with you, when you don’t win at home, where that wicket suits our style of play, particularly our batsmen, given how flat it’s been,” he added.
KKR ended their season on the fifth position in the league standings with 12 points from 14 matches. On the other hand, Mumbai Indians went to the top of the league standings after registering a win against KKR. Mumbai next takes on Chennai Super Kings in the qualifier one of the playoff stages on May 7.
