“Best Captaincy performance I have ever seen in T20” – McCullum on Morgan’s captaincy in IPL

Despite of his poor returns with the bat, KKR Head Coach Brendon McCullum chose to stick with Morgan, with him saying that he had backed Morgan to come good in the later stages of the tournament.

“It’s a really unique situation, isn’t it? He was captaining out of his skin. He’s captained as well as what I’ve ever seen him captain, as well as I’ve seen anyone really captain in a T20 competition,” McCullum said of Morgan. “I thought he was driving the team forward with his captaincy.

Unfortunately, the runs weren’t there for him, no matter how hard he tried. We tried to put him in that position where he’s been so successful, in those last five overs in T20 cricket right throughout his career. But unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.

“You know, there’s many examples over the years of guys who have struggled for form leading into big games who have then been able to find something in that situation to be able to get a performance. That was what I was clinging on to tonight, with both the captain and also the vice-captain [Dinesh Karthik, who had 100 runs in eight innings in UAE ]. But it wasn’t to be.

Those guys, they played their hearts out, they did their absolute best, and they just weren’t quite able to get the performances they would have liked. In the end, I’m still really proud of everyone who bought into the vision that we had for the group, invested in what we’re trying to achieve, and ultimately, took us on this journey which allowed us to have some great memories, but just fell short.”

Didn’t want to take the risk of playing a not fully-fit Russell : B McCullum

Knight Riders missed Russell’s explosiveness with bat and ball, as Chennai Super Kings won by 27 runs to lift their fourth IPL trophy.

Super Kings faced little problems from the bowlers in piling up 192 on the board, and Knight Riders then found boundaries hard to come by, especially in the second half of their chase.