Kolkata Knight Riders batter Manish Pandey said the team was focusing on training and match preparations even when the IPL was halted due to Indo-Pak military conflict as they were confident of the league’s resumption and reckons that perhaps the forced mini-break could actually help them rediscover their touch. KKR will face Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a must-win match here on Saturday to keep their playoffs hopes alive. “It (the mid-tournament break) doesn’t really change much because as professional cricketers, we know what’s to be done. We definitely knew that the tournament would resume, but we didn’t know how soon. But it was good that we didn’t have a lot of break,” said Pandey in the pre-match press conference here on Friday.
“We were still in the gym and doing our work on the game. The whole team is here and everyone is ready to go and we are looking forward to having a great game,” he added.
However, a defeat against the RCB will put paid to KKR’s knockout stage ambitions, but Pandey did not view it as a pressure point.
“You know, nothing much to lose from here. Actually, we just thought we could have had a better tournament as a team. We were discussing that, but nevertheless, we lost a few games in the middle.
“If you think about those crucial games, you wish now that you had won those games. But yeah, definitely two more games to go. Everybody is wanting to perform,” he said.
The KKR are a strong side on the paper, but they have not been able to perform consistently this season.
Pandey attributed the debacle to their inability to stitch together a series of wins like they did the last year.
“Last time we were winning games, a lot of games, which is very important in a tournament like IPL. This time we were winning one, but were losing one. The whole tournament was like that.
“Our batting has been fine. We have been bowling really well. It has been a year where it has been a little patchy in terms of both the performances, batting and bowling. Hopefully, we will have a similar strong core for next year as well and can win games like we were doing last year,” he said.
On a positive note, Pandey hoped the unexpected mid-event break would help KKR to regain some mojo in their last two games.
“But a break like this could definitely help. I am pretty sure guys would have gone back home and seen their videos and tried to work on a few things that they didn’t have the opportunity to do.
“So, I think it should be a good break. As I said, the only thing I am hoping for is to win the last two games and end on a high,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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