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Kolkata Knight Riders

about 2 years ago

Carnage Cummins didn't fire his cannonballs last night against Chennai. But Carnage Cummins opened fire a barrage of sixes and fours on the opponents to push them to the edge with a gritty 66* off 34 balls. An ever-evolving all-rounder, Pat Cummins, was the talking point of Wednesday's clash and even though KKR lost the match, there were plenty of positives to take away from it. We caught up with the Aussie speedster where he opened up about his mindset during last night's innings, his batting secrets and also the respect he has for Andre Russell.  

Excerpts:

We have often heard cricketers say that the morning after it takes a while to sink in about what happened last night. Was it a similar case for you?

Yeah, it was an awesome game. I was surprised how many messages I got from my friends and a lot of people who were watching back in Australia. I think you always look back and think what you could have done differently to win but it's pretty cool I think as always.

How do you see the team's transition of morale at this point? Especially after the tremendous fightback?

It's really positive around here. Everyone's pumped. Feel like we have got a gun side. So, I am sure we get a win or two and we will be on our way and flying. But I think there’s a feeling that we can win from basically anywhere. We didn’t bowl our best last night and we still got so close. Good feeling!

While Andre was in the middle and you knew you were coming in next, what was going through your mind?

First thing I want to say is I am glad Andre is in our team and I don't have to bowl to him. I think he is one of those guys, whatever situation he is out there in, you will feel like 'we can win here out of nowhere. You could feel the whole mood changing with the Chennai bowlers when he was out there. I think there is a belief that we can win a game from anywhere.

This wasn't the first time we saw you hitting sixes in T20s. We have seen this in IPL last year as well. Do you take your batting very seriously in T20s?

I do yeah, for sure. Especially when you are batting at No. 7 or 8, and then you got a small window to make an impact, so you work on being able to hit from Ball #1. I spent a lot of time being a boring Test batter. I can’t score many runs. So, I quite enjoy coming out here and swinging the bat. Sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn’t.

After losing half the side for 31 runs, did you consider getting as close to the target as possible to keep the Net Run Rate in control or did you really think we could get over the line?

I wasn’t thinking about run-rate. I was thinking how to win. I think when the game is completely gone, that’s when you start thinking about Net Run Rate. But I never felt like the game was completely gone yesterday. So, first mindset was always - how can we win from here?

It was very different! Chennai spins! You got plenty of options as a bowler. It's a bigger ground too. Here, it’s a small ground, faster outfield and Wicket is so batter-friendly. So, it was good for a game like yesterday. 200-plus scores are great for the fans. It’s a good fun game to play with the ball flying around. I think it’s what T20 is about. So I'd say it's a good stadium.