Abu Dhabi Knight Riders' campaign at the ILT20 2024 came to an end, when they suffered a defeat against Dubai Capitals on Tuesday (13 February). Sunil Narine's side bowed out of the tournament after an 85-run defeat.
Led by Sam Billings, Dubai Capitals posted 188/5 on the board with Sikandar Raza scoring 40 runs. Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, on the contrary, collapsed after scoring merely 103 runs.
Skipper Sunil Narine shared his thoughts on the loss, campaign and league after the match. Here are the excerpts:
Tough luck, but great season overall, if we look back at the inaugural season. At times it seemed that the team had really gelled in well, with a real shot at the trophy. What went wrong today?
To be honest, I think we started pretty well with the ball. I think they got away in the middle where we didn't pick up wickets, but in saying that, I think they got a little too many. Obviously, with the bat we didn't start well, and we never regrouped or even had a chance. They went away with the game probably in the first seven overs and we generally couldn't do much about it.
It was a really good season for the team and it looked for a long time that you had a chance to get the trophy. So how would you sum up the season?
I think it was a good season. We played some good cricket. It just didn't happen. We played the best at the right time. It was a way better season than last year; qualifying was the first goal. We did that but we didn't contribute to the rest.
We still had great team spirit and the boys were gelling good. The key moment where we were under it was that I don't think that we stood up and came back on top. When we were on top, we stayed on top. So things to look forward to and things to look into as well.
Any individual performances that you want to talk about? Because overall you had a pretty young team, but it seemed they really performed well under you.
I don't really want to name them, but Alishan from UAE did well. Willie with a new ball and I think Russ, we know all what Russ does. If you have a team that in each game there's somebody different, I think it's good. But at the top of my head, those are probably the three names that probably did extremely well in the tournament for us.
What are your thoughts on the tournament overall, season one, and now season two, how do you see the tournament?
Of course, it was super competitive in terms of all six teams staying in the hunt till the very end. So maybe more competitive compared to last year.
The quality of cricket, any thoughts on that?
The time a tournament keeps going and going, it's going to be different and it's going to get more difficult. You could have seen it based on you having to wait until the last game. So I think what's nice, there are a little more fans coming out this year. Hopefully, next year will be even more because we do enjoy playing under fans and always have something to prove.
About the ADKR fans - you had great support, especially here in Abu Dhabi, your home ground. Any parting thoughts for the fans?
Thanks for coming out and supporting us this season. Sorry, we couldn't bring them the trophy, but hopefully next year we'll give a better show and go even further in the finals, but continue supporting us. We love you guys and thanks for all the support. Thank you so much.
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