Tim Southee has insisted the Knight Riders will look to "make the most" of the upcoming games and "put our best foot forward."
Kolkata Knight Riders lost yet another close encounter against the Delhi Capitals by four wickets and an over to spare and extended their losing streak to five in a row.
Batting first at the Wankhede stadium, KKR stumbled to 35 for 4 in the eighth over with the pair of Aaron Finch and Venkatesh Iyer making just nine runs between them as they became the fifth opening combination to be tried this season before Nitish Rana's half-century saw the side finish at 146 for 9.
“We’ve tried a few opening combinations and there are no bad players in the IPL, they’re all class acts. The guys who’ve opened, have pure class as well. So, it’s just about guys finding form and running with guys who’ve found form," Southee said at the post-match press conference.
“The chopping and changing nature isn’t ideal, but that happens when you aren’t winning a lot of games."
In Delhi's reply, Umesh Yadav struck first ball to take a catch off his own bowling and later returned to pick two more wickets to dismiss David Warner and Rishabh Pant to swing the momentum back in the Knight Riders' favour. Sunil Narine continued his strong bowling form to pick the wicket of Lalit Yadav while conceding just 19 runs in his quote of four overs.
The Knight Riders sniffed a chance when the Capitals were 83 for 5 and later 113 for 6 but Rovman Powell's 16-ball 33 sealed the chase.
"I think we have bowled well at times but like I said, we get ourselves into a position where we need one more wicket and then the game swings in our momentum but we just haven’t been able to grab that," the New Zealand pacer said.
"I think you look at the likes of Umesh, he has bowled outstandingly well throughout the tournament and Sunil has obviously shown his class but we just need a couple of other guys to go with them. We know in T20 cricket it’s very tough at times when you feel you have bowled okay but on these grounds with one shorter side it can be tough at times but we have got to pick ourselves up and make the most of the next games we got and try and put our best foot forward."
Skipper Shreyas Iyer, too, stressed the need to back one's instinct and continue to play an aggressive brand of cricket.
"I think we need to stick with what we've got right now. We need to play some fearless cricket and not be very conservative in terms of our decision-making. With five more matches remaining, we need to play our heart out and give everything for the franchise."
"We need to just tell them to stop thinking [too much], forget about the performance in the past. Just start off fresh and back your instincts. The preparation has been on point by everyone, it's just that the mindset where I feel you need to sit back and think about what I can do right. Be overconfident. Even if you go wrong, it's fine."
Kolkata Knight Riders take on Rajasthan Royals at the same venue on Monday, May 2.