Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], April 22 (ANI): Following his side's heartbreaking one run loss to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) head coach Andy Flower lauded bowler Karn Sharma for the fight he put up with the bat in the final over delivered by Mitchell Starc on Sunday.
Despite valiant half-centuries from Will Jacks and Rajat Patidar and a late cameo by Karn, which saw him smash Starc for three sixes in the final over, RCB fell one short of 223 run target set by KKR on back of some solid knocks from skipper Shreyas Iyer, Phil Salt, Rinku Singh and Andre Russell.
In a video posted by RCB, Flower said, "Tomorrow, we go again as a team. We want to grow as individuals and as a team."
Flower acknowledged that it was nice seeing bowlers play a more attacking game against the batters for whole of 20 overs.
"First of all, it was nice to see our bowlers attacking the batting like that. For the first time, we kept attacking for entirety of 20 overs," said the former Zimbabwe great.
While chasing 223, RCB was eight wickets down at 202 going into the final over. Karn, who averages 18.50, strikes at an SR of over 126 in T20 cricket and has two fifties as well, took KKR's big buy Starc to the cleaners with three sixes. However, run outs on last two balls meant RCB fell a run short.
Andy lauded Karn's cameo, calling him as "Brian Lara".
"Karn Sharma, Brian Lara, that was a great fight at the end. The game was almost gone. You got us that close," said Flower.
The head coach also lauded pacer Lockie Ferguson for making a remarkable comeback in his coming overs after being hammered for 28 runs by Phil Salt in one over during the powerplay. He ended with figures of 1/47, conceding just 19 in the next three overs.
"Another thing I loved seeing was Lockie, how you turned around getting whacked in that powerplay," said Flower.
Coming to the match, RCB skipper Faf Du Plessis won the toss and elected to field first. Phil Salt's explosive 48 in 14 balls, with seven fours and three sixes, providing the two-time champions with some extra runs in the powerplay. Wickets were falling from the other end continuously, but skipper Shreyas Iyer (50 in 36 balls, with seven fours and a six), Rinku Singh (24 in 16 balls, with two fours and a six), Andre Russell (27* in 20 balls, with four boundaries) and Ramandeep Singh (24* in nine balls, with two fours and two sixes) contributed just enough to take them to 222/6 in their 20 overs.
Cameron Green (2/35) was the pick of the bowlers for RCB. Yash Dayal also picked up two wickets, but leaked 56 runs. Mohammed Siraj and Lockie Ferguson took a wicket.
In the run chase, after skipper Faf Du Plessis and Virat Kohli fell early, Will Jacks (55 in 32 balls, with four boundaries and five sixes) and Rajat Patidar (52 in 23 balls, with three fours and five sixes) got RCB back in the game and Karn smashed 20 in seven balls, but RCB fell short of a run.
Andre Russell (3/25) and Sunil Narine (2/34) were top bowlers for KKR.
Russell took home the Player of the Match award for scoring 27 and taking three wickets. (ANI)
