Dinesh Karthik was full of praise for Windies all-rounder Andre Russell following his unbeaten knock of 48 runs off 13 deliveries as he powered Kolkata Knight Riders to a win against Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets.
“Those kind of knocks, you don’t talk much. We trust him as a player. It’s important to give him an atmosphere where he’s happy and he just keeps performing. Yeah, it was hard to play strokes against spinners with the ball gripping but was easier against the fast bowlers. I think as much as well he batted, it’s time we all started to bowl better and help the batters. It was nice to see Lynny bat like that and take responsibility,” said Karthik in the post-match presentation.
Batting first, RCB posted 205-3 in 20 overs after some brilliant piece of batting by Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. The swashbuckling duo was backed by Aussie all-rounder Marcus Stoinis who played a sensational cameo at the end to help RCB post a mammoth score.
However, RCB’s hope of clinching the first win of IPL 2019 went in vain as Russell decided to bring out the monster inside him as he whacked each and every ball that came his way in Bengaluru.
