Eoin Morgan's first assignment as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper ended in an eight-wicket defeat to Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Friday. MI chased down the target of 149 with over three overs and eight wickets to spare.
"We weren't even at the races today. We got a score to bowl at in the end, but the way Mumbai got off, it was tough to stop them," said Morgan while speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony.
KKR managed to drag themselves to 148/5 thanks to an unbeaten 87-run stand between Pat Cummins and Morgan after a top order collapse that left KKR reeling on 61/5 in the 11th over. Morgan and Dinesh Karthik swapped places on the batting order with Karthik coming in at No. 4, only to be dismissed by Rahul Chahar for just four runs.
"We have a lot of experience in numbers four, five and six. Given the match-ups, we are trying to play our best hand there. Today it didn't make that much of a difference. We were all in early," said Morgan.
England’s 2019 World Cup-winning captain was named the captain of KKR on the afternoon of the match against Mumbai with the team’s official statement saying Dinesh Karthik had made the decision to step down in order to focus on his batting.
After the loss, Morgan was asked about the thought process behind the change in leadership halfway through the season.
“I think we’re in a team of leaders and given that myself and Dinesh were titled leaders (captain and vice-captain), there will be a smooth transition from here. I think it took a lot of courage and selflessness from DK to come forward and recognise that within himself he wanted to focus on his batting for the remainder of the tournament and take the vice-captaincy up. Therefore, I became captain,” said Morgan while confirming that Karthik will be the vice-captain of the franchise going forward.
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