CHENNAI: Before his team's next match against Delhi Capitals on October 24, Kolkata Knight Riders coach Brendon McCullum faces an unenviable task. He has to lift the morale of his boys, who are shattered after the humiliating defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Wednesday. Batting first, Kolkata made an abysmal 84/8 to lose by eight wickets.
"This is going to affect a little bit in terms of our confidence. We need to work hard on ensuring our morale doesn't drop. At the same time, we must have those honest conversations around how we improve," McCullum said. "I firmly believe we have a side which can bounce back. We just need to improve slightly. We're still fourth in the tournament, which is very fortunate for us. Destiny is still very much in our own hands."
Kolkata caved in early, against Mohammed Siraj, who had amazing figures of 2-2-0-3 at one stage. From 14/4, there was no recovery. "I didn't think there was a lot in the pitch. If anything, we were just a little timid in our approach. That's frustrating because we spoke at length before the game about trying to be positive and show some strong intent. That's something we have to address in the next few days," McCullum added.
"I think Siraj bowled excellent lines and lengths. He was out to present the seam and asked a few questions of us, questions which in the past we would have probably answered better than we did," McCullum said.
Siraj became the first bowler in IPL history to bowl two maiden overs as he dismissed Rahul Tripathi (1), Nitish Rana (0) and Tom Banton (10) to effectively kill the contest in the first four overs.
"I think we weren't able to enter the game at any stage, none of our top-order batsmen were able to get anything going. Defending 85, you might just win one in 50 games. I think RCB were very good tonight. We're very poor with bat in hand. You're not going to win too many games from 40/6. But we've got to bounce back because we've got another game in a few days. With the conditions being slightly challenging at times, you've got to find a way to pick yourself up and try and get a result in the next game," said McCullum.