Captain Shreyas Iyer admitted that they were outplayed by the Lucknow Super Giants after Kolkata Knight Riders crashed to their seventh defeat in the tournament.

“They outplayed us in all departments — bowling and batting. They bowled well in the Powerplay, they started well with the bat too,” said Shreyas, who scored just 6. “We came back in the middle overs but they took it away from us at the death. It was hard to read the wicket, so we chose to bowl. We found out the ball was stopping and the pitch was two paced. It was a 155-160 wicket, but they went over that.”

The Knights' captain was still hopeful of getting it right in the rest of their three matches though. “We have not got the basics right. Powerplay and death overs are the areas we need to improve, hopefully we can get it right next time.”

Lucknow’s Jason Holder, who took three wickets, praised the team's effort. “Extremely happy... I think it was an excellent team effort. Credit must be given to the bowlers, I thought we held our nerves with the bat to post a 170-plus total,” Holder said.