 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Looking ahead instead of losing his sleep over the team's middle-order collapse in second qualifier, Kolkata Knight Riders' chief mentor David Hussey said Andre Russell is recovering from his injury and 'might be in the mix' for Friday's IPL final against Chennai Super Kings.
Despite a late batting collapse, KKR managed to beat Delhi Capitals by three wickets in Sharjah on Wednesday.
Swashbuckling all-rounder Russell, who missed a few games after suffering a grade 2 hamstring injury, he might be back for the title clash against CSK.
"He was bowling before the game (against Delhi Capitals) today, so he might be in the mix," Hussey said the IPL Qualifier 2 match.
Chasing a modest 136 for victory against Delhi, KKR were sitting pretty on 121/1 at one stage before they lost six wickets for seven runs in the space of 22 balls. Rahul Tripathi's stunning six against Ravichandran Ashwin helped KKR escape with a thrilling victory.
Hussey backed his batters to come good in the final.
"No, I am not concerned because they are all classy players. They know how to play... just the difficult nature of these pictures, they have been playing on, makes the middle of players, sort of stand out, they are not getting their strike rate 200," he said.
"They had to knuckle down and maybe a strike rate of 110-120, so not concerned, we are going to Dubai full of confidence and you just never know what's going to happen."
"... Full credit to (KKR skipper Eoin) Morgan. (We have) full confidence in Morgan, Dinesh Karthik and Shakib (Al Hasan) going in the next game. They have done it countless times for their countries and in the IPL. So, we are looking forward to the next game," the KKR chief mentor said.
Hussey praised young opener Venkatesh Iyer, who struck his third fifty in the second leg of IPL in the UAE.
"We have found a player in Venkatesh Iyer, not only he is a classy player but he is a wonderful person and team man as well. He struck the ball superbly and from ball one, so I think some of these big sixes that he hit actually changed the tempo of the game and got us into a winning position," said Hussey.
"Furthermore, the opening partnership we had between those two players was just class personified. They complement each other really well, if one player is going, the other one sits back and gives the other person the strike.
"And I think they run between the wickets really well. So, we have definitely found a nice opening partnership there and hopefully continues for one more game," he added.
He also lavished praise on young opener Gill, saying the right-hander will have a long career for India.
"Shubman is a class player, everyone knows he is going to be a 10-year veteran of Test match, ODI and T20 cricket for India," he said, adding that McCullum should get credit for the team's turnaround after it was languishing at the seventh spot at the end of the first leg in India.