Kolkata Knight Riders can come back: Woakes

“Our camp is still upbeat. We have some important games coming up and we want to make sure that we win to qualify. We still firmly believe in the dressing room that we can go on to finish in top two,” Woakes said after his team’s four-wicket loss to Rising Pune Supergiant. 

“We did not quite get going in the Powerplay. To lose three wickets in the Powerplay put us behind but we always tried to rebuild. When you keep losing wickets in T20 cricket, it’s hard to keep up with the rate. We were probably short by 15-20 runs. We were below-par and not an ideal score to defend on this wicket,” Woakes added. 

Sunil Narine looked out of sorts against some exceptional swing bowling from medium pacer Jaydev Unadkat as they were down to 40/3 inside the Powerplay. “I think he’s come off on a few occasions and got us to absolute flier. We also chased down some good scores and also he allows us to set some good total as well. He’s a good player top of the order. In case he gets 20 off 10 balls I would say he got us off to a good start,” he said backing the team’s decision to send Narine atop the order. 

Woakes also rued the absence of Robin Uthappa, who is nursing a hamstring. “It’s a big void for us. He scored a lot of runs for us in this tournament and is up there with the leading scorers of the tournament.”