Kolkata Knight Riders’ inspirational fightback did leave captain Eoin Morgan satisfied though he would have preferred more runs from the top-order batsmen.

“Certainly from the position we were in after our Powerplay (31/5), we probably didn’t think we’d get as close as we did. But Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik really did put a partnership together...

“Once you do that taking advantage of the conditions here, it’s very difficult to stop. A partnership going in that manner and then following that Pat Cummins... the way he played really gave us every chance towards the end. Tremendous fight from our middle and lower order, which is all you can ask for when you lose wickets upfront like that. What a hell of a game of cricket.

“The first five overs of our batting didn’t go our way. We didn’t play as well as would have liked. If we had built a partnership and taken advantage of those early overs going into those middle overs, we would have been in a really strong position.

“We can be happy with the way (we adapted to the) new ground, different challenges,” Morgan said after the 18-run loss to Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede in Mumbai.

He didn’t wish to blame the bowlers for giving away too many runs. “Having watched our guys bat, I don’t think there was a great deal of margin of error. So we have to be a little bit kinder to our bowlers when we walk off. Having been hit for 220 and then nearly getting close, being five down very early, you have to be honest with the bowlers about execution.”

Morgan said that Andre Russell was “disappointed” after being dismissed for 54 off 22 balls. “I tend to stay away from Andre after he’s got out. When he’s in the form like this, he's as good a player as any in the tournament, particularly when he strikes the ball like that. It’s great that he’s been in this sort of form. It’s disappointing that the rest of us couldn't help him out. He’ll obviously be disappointed.”