IPL 2023: Looking at the tournament with nothing to lose, but many things to gain, says KKR skipper Nitish Rana

Cricket Image for IPL 2023: Looking at the tournament with nothing to lose, but many things to gain, (Image Source: IANS)

With the race for the playoffs heating up, Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Nitish Rana feels that for his team, there is now nothing to lose but many things to gain and their approach will be to take up one match at a time to tackle various scenarios.

Kolkata are currently in eighth place in the points table, with six points from nine matches. Thursday will see them face Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium to set up a chance for a late comeback in the battle for playoffs.

"Now I am looking at the tournament in a way where we have nothing to lose, but many things to gain. If we move ahead game by game, then it is better for us than thinking about what will happen after five games," said Rana in a video posted by the franchise on their social media handles.

When the two teams clashed last time at Eden Gardens, Harry Brook's maiden IPL century helped Hyderabad emerge victorious. Reflecting on the last meeting with Hyderabad, Rana said, "I feel, in the last match, we conceded 15-20 runs extra. Whenever any partnership is broken and when you are about to make another partnership you lose about 1-2 overs trying to settle in."

"Those ten-odd balls or one over requires to build a new partnership creates a gap between the required runs and the remaining balls. So sometimes you panic and you play the wrong shots which actually happened with us. But no doubt, Harry Brook played a sensational knock that day. We went a little off the track without plans. Hopefully, this time we would keep our plans on track."

Rana signed off by saying the whole team is focused on thinking about one game at a time rather than focusing on what will their positioning be at the end of the league stage.

"We discussed this in the group as well and we will focus on one game at a time and move one by one and won't think about what will happen after 5 matches."

"How will we qualify and only if we take one each game individually then the focus will be better in the current match rather than thinking what's next."