Nathan Coulter-Nile: You can't be playing cricket at 2 am
BCCI
KKR pacer Nathan Coulter-Nile has called for a relook at the scheduling of the IPL games after Kolkata’s eliminator encounter against Hyderabad ended at 1.30 am last night. After an extended rain delay, Kolkata were set a revised target of 48 from 6 overs and KKR won with 7 wickets to spare.
Speaking about the nearly three-hour rain delay during the last night’s game, Coulter-Nile said, "Well, no one really got nervous until when they went out there for the last look at about 12:40 am. It sort of looked like I didn't wanna play. I think there is so much time, rules probably need to be looked at, I mean it's 2 am, you can't be playing cricket at 2 o'clock. But I wasn't nervous at all. There was so much time, we had to get on," as reported by TOI.
The Australian was the pick of the KKR bowlers as his figures of 3/20 reduced the defending champions to a paltry score of 128/7 in the first
Despite his own heroics with the ball, which included the wickets of Chris Jordan and Vijay Shankar in the 19th over, Coulter-Nile believes that Piyush Chawla’s dismissal of David Warner was the turning point in the game. "Piyush removed Warner, that I thought was the turning point. He is that kind of a bloke who can turn a 130 into a 150 or 160. That started with the first over." Â
Speaking of the anxious moments caused due to the rain delay, Coulter-Nile added,  "When it was raining, we were quietly confident because 12.50 am was the cut off time. It kept raining and raining. The covers kept coming on and off. So, we were getting twitchy.”
The reworked target meant that the odds were stacked in Kolkata’s favor and despite a few early losses, Gautam Gambhir's 32* ensured Kolkata a date against Mumbai Indians. After the game though, the Kolkata skipper sympathized with the circumstances that led to Hyderabad’s loss as he tweeted.
Satisfying win but my heart goes out 2 @SunRisers,tough 2 fathom such a loss. U r a champion side @VVSLaxman281 @YUVSTRONG12 @davidwarner31
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) May 18, 2017
More importantly, last night’s win means that KKR will take on Mumbai Indians in qualifier 2 of IPL 2017, the winner of which will take on Rising Pune Supergiant in the final on Sunday. And given that the second qualifier will also be played in Bangalore, Coulter-Nile hoped that the weather holds up.
Did you know, Gautam Gambhir is the only Indian batsman to have scored more than 300 runs in four consecutive Test series.
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