Ahmedabad, Apr 27 (IANS): Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Eoin Morgan praised his spinners, who confused batsmen with their variations as they led their side to a convincing five-wicket win over Punjab Kings (PBKS) in an Indian Premier League match on Monday.
Both Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy conceded runs at under six an over. The former took two for 22 in his four overs while the latter scalped one for 24 in his quota of four overs as KKR restricted PBKS to 123/9 in 20 overs.
"The advantage we have over most spinners is that our spinners are variation bowlers. They don't rely on drift and turn. They control their lengths well and rely on a tiny amount of turn and today they were exceptional," said Morgan after the match.
The two spinners bowled the middle overs and throttled the run-scoring and eventually proved to be the reason behind PBKS getting to their eventual score (123) and not 150.
The left-handed Morgan, who led England to the 2019 World Cup win also praised pace bowler Shivam Mavi for picking the dangerman Chris Gayle early.
"[It was] Only his second game this season. The match-up against Gayle was favourable. He bowled well in the last game and started well here. For him to make an impact is huge, credit to him."
Mavi removed Gayle for a first-ball duck.
Morgan felt Monday's win could turn things around for the team. KKR jumped to fifth place from eighth in the points table.
"Lot of time to go in the tournament. Hopefully today can kick-start something for us," added Morgan.