Chasing Rajasthan Royals' (RR) target of 218 was a daunting task, but the two-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) almost reached the target courtesy of some brilliant batting by their skipper Shreyas Iyer and opener Aaron Finch. However, KKR's bad form at the Brabourne Stadium continued as they slipped to a narrow seven-run loss, stretching their losing streak at the venue to five.
The Knight Riders, who needed 40 to win from 24 with six wickets in hand, ran into an inspired Yuzvendra Chahal, whose four-wicket over essentially ended their run-chase. After the match, head coach McCullum spoke about Chahal's role in his team's loss but expected more from his players. "We were trying to hold Pat Cummins for the seamers," McCullum explained at the post-match press conference.
"Chahal has had a number on him on a number of occasions. (Shivam) Mavi's role was to get through that. Unfortunately, we weren't able to execute what we were meant to do there and we made a mistake. You can't allow good players like Chahal to enter the game when there's pressure on. We played a good game but just made a couple of silly mistakes."
Despite witnessing his side's third successive loss, this time at the hands of RR and Chahal, McCullum heaped praise on leg spinner's performance, "We needed 40 off 4 and we had 5-6 wickets in hand and we were very much in charge of the game. Credit to Chahal, he's an absolute brilliant bowler and he's one of those guys who isn't bothered by pressure situations."
And now, after a strong start to the season which also saw them on top of the points table for a while, KKR have slipped to sixth. McCullum believes that his team will now have to find a way to keep the morale high, "From our point of view, we've had three losses in a row and we're going to have to find a way to keep our morale high which is so vitally important. There can be a tendency to run away from things when you haven't got across the line in a couple of key games.
"We just have to keep pushing ourselves, make sure we stick together and stay composed. We've been there before and it's going to test us again this time," the legendary batter added.
