Mohali: Kolkata Knight Riders batsman Chris Lynn says miracles should not be expected from his team’s relatively new batting line-up even though he and Sunil Narine have done well in the opening slot.
Chasing a target of 168, Knight Riders went down by 14 runs to Kings XI Punjab in an IPL match on Tuesday night despite Lynn scoring a 52-ball 84.
Before Tuesday’s loss, Kolkata had beaten Royal Challengers Bangalore with Narine blasting the quickest half century in IPL 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 line-up,” 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.
Kolkata may be holding on to the No. 2 spot as of now with eight wins from 13 games but with just one match left for them, the two-time champions are wary that things can change fast in this format.
“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.
Asked about the turning point of the match against KXIP, he said: “The dot balls between the sixth and the 11th over dented our run-rate.”
He, however, gave full credit the way Kings XI bowlers bowled and restricted KKR. “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.
