Morgan pins hopes on Narine to turn things around for KKR

Smarting from back-to-back losses, Kolkata Knight Riders will once again bank on the mystery spin of Sunil Narine in their bid to turn it around against Sunrisers Hyderabad under home conditions here tomorrow, middle-order batsman Eoin Morgan said today.

Smarting from back-to-back losses, Kolkata Knight Riders will once again bank on the mystery spin of Sunil Narine in their bid to turn it around against Sunrisers Hyderabad under home conditions here tomorrow, middle-order batsman Eoin Morgan said on Saturday.

The English batsman said Narine`s tidy bowling was the silver lining for the team, which had suffered two consecutive away losses after winning their campaign opener. "Sunil bowled well in both the games. He is a huge match winner, especially at home. It`s good to see him doing well, even if the team is losing," Morgan told reporters on the match-eve press conference. "We have seen the exploits of Sunil Narine, his potential of winning a match for us," he said referring to the West Indian off-spinner`s 4/13 in their win against Delhi Daredevils at Eden Gardens in their first match. "I don`t think the nature of pitches has changed much. The pitch on which we played Delhi Daredevils was pretty similar to last year`s," he said. Morgan said his side was not worried at this stage of the tournament as they had brought their campaign back on track from a similar position last year. "We know we can turn it around. We can make things happen. Hopefully, the momentum will be with us following a win tomorrow. We obviously take a bit of confidence from what we did last year. We were in a similar position after getting off to a slow start. But we did turn it around. Hopefully, we turn it around tomorrow with a home win. "It`s pretty difficult; the momentum is not with us at the moment. But tomorrow at our home ground, we will try and produce skills and concentrate on things we do best," Morgan added. Asked about their losses, Morgan said the nature of the format is unpredictable. "Twenty20 is a funny game. We could have easily won against Rajasthan Royals and against Royal challengers Bangalore...It was pretty hard to stop Chris Gayle," he said. Morgan informed that explosive Kiwi opener Brendon McCullum is likely to be included for Sunday’s game. "He is a world class player. He brings in a lot to the team with his skills. If he is included into the side, hopefully he would do it." Sunrisers might boast of world`s fastest bowler Dale Steyn in their line-up but Morgan said the conditions would not suit the South African quickie. "He is particularly bowling well at the moment. I can`t see the pitch suiting him here. I don`t think he played here last year," he said. PTI