Indian Premier League 2020: He has carried their middle order, Brad Hogg lauds this Kolkata Knight Riders batsman

Former Australian spinner Brad Hogg has lauded Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Eoin Morgan, saying that Morgan had carried KKR’s entire middle order in the tournament.

The appreciation from Hogg came after Morgan’s rapid-fire knock of 68 from just 35 balls powered KKR to an impressive 60-run win over Rajasthan Royals in their last league game – giving them a real shot at the IPL 2020 playoffs berth.

Taking to his official Twitter account the former chinaman spinner wrote: “KKR have a nervous two days, yes Pat Cummins has been brilliant, but the pick of the tournament was Eoin Morgan who has carried there middle order all tournament, complementing the excellent starts from Shubman Gill.”

#KKR have a nervous two days, yes @patcummins30 has been brilliant, but the pick of the tournament was @Eoin16 who has carried there middle order all tournament, complementing the excellent starts from @RealShubmanGill #IPL2020 #KKRvRR — Brad Hogg (@Brad_Hogg) November 2, 2020

Morgan has looked in fine touch throughout this edition and rescued several matches for KKR with the rest of their batting flattering to deceive. Apart from Shubman Gill and Morgan, none of the other KKR batsmen have been consistent enough to justify their place in the playing XI.

Morgan has scored 418 runs from 14 games thus far at an average of 41.80 and a strike-rate of 138.41.

While Nitish Rana and Dinesh Karthik have both played some match-winning knocks, their lack of consistency has often backfired with Morgan having to save the day, lower down the order.

In the game against Rajasthan Royals, Eoin Morgan scored a rapid-fire 68 (off 35 balls; 4x5, 6x6) and was given good company in the death by Andre Russell (25 off 11 balls, 4x1, 6x3). The duo castled some lusty blows at the death and took KKR to a handsome total of 191/7.

Chasing KKR’s total of 191 in a do or die game, Rajasthan could only conjure up 131/9 from their 20 overs – knocking them out of playoff contention and sending them packing out of the tournament. KKR’s record signing Pat Cummins was the hero of the day as he picked up four wickets, returning with figures of 4-0-34-4.