IPL 2021 / Andre Russell responds to SRK's apology tweet, says 'It's not end of the world'

Cricket Desk: Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder Andre Russell bemoaned his team's gut-wrenching defeat against Mumbai Indians on Tuesday. He also supported the team's owner and ambassador Shah Rukh Khan's recent tweet apologizing to the fans on behalf of the players.

Andre Russell remarked that the KKR camp is disappointed with the performance which saw them mess up what was a run-a-ball chase at the 15th over mark to end up with a humbling 10-run loss. He, however, also expressed firm belief that the Knight Riders will learn from their mistakes and come back stronger in the next match.

"Yeah, I support that Tweet but at the end of the day the game of cricket... you are not sure until it's over. I think we are still confident, we still played some good cricket and I am proud of the boys. You know, we are definitely disappointed but it's not the end of the world, it's only the second game and we are going to learn from it," said Andre Russell in the post-match press conference.

In an almost bizarre turn of events, KKR stumbled from 84-2 in the 10th over to 142-7 at the end of the innings. After a brilliant opening stand between Nitish Rana (57 off 47) and Shubman Gill (33 off 24), none of the middle-order batsmen crossed double digits.

Rana, Shakib al Hasan and Eoin Morgan all looked in an inexplicable hurry as they lost their wickets. On the other hand, Andre Russell (9 off 15) and Dinesh Karthik (8 off 11) lost the run-rate advantage in the last few overs by being overtly conscious.

Russell, in particular, looked completely out of touch as he only managed a solitary boundary, that too off a free hit. With 13 required off the last 4 balls, he toe-ended Trent Boult's yorker to hand him an easy return catch.

"We will look to make sure that who's in, stays in" - Andre Russell

Andre Russell suggested that it wasn't easy for the new batsmen to get off the blocks on the sticky Chennai wicket. He remarked that from now on, the team will try to make sure that batsmen set on the crease finish the game as well.

"I just think it's a game of cricket. I have played hundreds of T20 games and I have seen games where teams cruise in on the driver's seat and then suddenly lose a few wickets, new batters come in and struggle to get away and that's what happened tonight. So, we definitely have to learn from this as I have said before. We will look to make sure that who's in, stays in and once we learn from all these mistakes that happened tonight we will definitely do better because we have a good team. I have trust and confidence in the boys," concluded Andre Russell.

The defeat overshadowed an outstanding bowling effort from KKR which included a five-wicket-haul by Andre Russell and at least one wicket for every frontline bowler. They will look to build on these positives against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 18.