The Kolkata Knight Riders’ players, immersed in emotion, underscored the pivotal roles of mentor Gautam Gambhir and assistant coach Abhishek Nayar who shaped the team into a championship-winning squad that convincingly triumphed over Sunrisers Hyderabad to claim its third IPL trophy.
Andre Russell and Harshit Rana could not find words to describe their feelings about being crowned IPL champions, but they both admired Nayar’s contribution to the team.
In a lopsided final, KKR demolished Hyderabad by eight wickets after restricting them to a mere 113 runs which has been the lowest ever total in an IPL title clash. This win sealed KKR’s third IPL title.
“After this victory I am extremely happy,” said Harshit who took two wickets in the final match.
Even Andre Russell couldn’t contain his tears as he struggled for words.
“No words for it. It means so much. We are glad we were all abiding by discipline and working towards best interests of one person. This franchise is such a big gift from us to them.” Said Russell
Varun Chakravarathy praised Nayar for his input into the campaign, having had an excellent season with his spin bowling.
“I can only think of one thing right now – The person who built this Indian core: Abhishek Nayar. Please come here” He asked him to join them.
Venkatesh Iyer also spoke on how instrumental Nayar was in KKR’s success story while he was unbeaten on 52 off 26 balls during an easy chase of 114 runs by him and other batsmen.
“Really happy with it. As Varun mentioned, Abhishek Nayar deserves all the credit in the world. Some contributions go unnoticed, I want to make sure they don’t. This guy deserves all the credit in the world for the way he has been working for this franchise.”
“This win is for the fans who turned up year after year and waited for 10 years,” Venkatesh Iyer said.
KKR produced a clinical effort with the ball to dismiss SRH for 113, their lowest ever total in an IPL title clash after losing the toss.
With as many as 57 balls to spare, KKR players chased down the target of 114 while team mentor Gautam Gambhir and head coach Chandrakant Pandit watched from dugout in middle of action unfolding on field.
“When GG bhaiya became the mentor, I want you all to know that. I pinged him as it was really nice. But he told me this “Thank you but I would be happy if we stand at the podium with the trophy in our hands”,
“So today is that day and never forget that message”, Nitish Rana said.’
Seamer Vaibhav Arora said, “My role is to take wickets with the new ball. After that the spinners were doing their jobs. So, today also the aim was to take wickets in powerplay that happened as well.”
“My seven-year-old dream has been fulfilled. Finally I will lift it (the trophy). I am proud of my entire team and GG sir. It was God’s plan.”
The KKR players were praised by Bharat Arun, India’s bowling coach who played such a role behind-the-scenes in making India world’s No.1 Test side.”
The last two years have been difficult, I think. We nearly fell short, we could not go through. We needed a lot of soul-searching and now we can just savor this moment.
Talking about Players of the Final Mitchell Starc, Arun said that “I believe Mitch coming into the team helped other youngsters in the side regain their confidence. He is maybe the greatest bowler in the world. Once he got used to Indian conditions, he was brilliant.”
“Spinners mature with age and doing Sunny (Sunil Narine) and Varun bowling together was fantastic.”
Speaking of Narine as a batsman, he said “He provided a completely new dimension to our batting. It was Gautam who insisted on his opening and it paid off. Its’ been a great night and now let’s party.”
