IPL 2020 : “We should have bowled first,” Eoin Morgan regrets his call at the toss

Eoin Morgan

Royal Challengers Bangalore absolutely hammered Kolkata Knight Riders as they registered a comfortable 8 wicket victory. Winning the toss, Eoin Morgan decided to bat first and everything went wrong thereafter. KKR lost 4 wickets for jusr 14 in the powerplay as Mohammad Siraj slated history with 3 wickets and 2 maidens in his first spell.

KKR could never recover from the early blows as they were able to put only 84 runs on the board in their 20 overs. This was the lowest total in the history of IPL by a side who batted first and played their whole quota of 20 overs. Virat Kohli’s side chased down the timid total comfortably with 39 balls to spare.

Also read : IPL: Lowest innings scores by teams in IPL history

We should have bowled first

Morgan lamented his call at the toss to bat first. He feels that RCB read the conditions well and used it to their strength. He points out that a side needs to exploit every oppurtunity on offer, as RCB did, to flourish in a league of this standard.

“Being four-five down early on isn’t the position we wanted to be in. RCB bowled well, and probably looking at the conditions, we should have bowled first,” said Morgan. “They managed to exploit anything that was on offer and given the nature of the tournament, every time you have to be at your best against every team,” he said.

KKR missed their West Indian duo of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine very much. Morgan feels that the absence of players of their calibre leaves an irreparable hole in the team.

“Hopefully they (Narine and Russell) will be available round the corner. We know when guys of that calibre, particularly all-rounders, are available, things will be different. Hopefully they will be available soon,” he said.

Although KKR is still on the fourth spot despite the loss, it won’t be easy for them moving forward. Especially with KXIP, SRH and RR closing in on for a playoff spot, things are about to get spicy as we approach the business end of IPL 2020.

Also read : IPL 2020 KKR vs RCB: Mohammad Siraj wreaks havoc on KKR as RCB beat KKR by 8 wickets in the lowest-scoring game of the tournament