Laxmi Ratan Shukla in Chennai on Saturday. His fighting knock of 42 went in vain. (PTI)

Chennai: Kolkata Knight Riders have taken Saturday’s defeat at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in their stride and vowed to fight back strongly.

“This is being played on a league format. We can’t win every match. Losing is part of the game…

“There are positives and negatives to be taken from this loss. We will come back strongly,” Laxmi Ratan Shukla said.

Shukla was the highest scorer for Knight Riders with 42 off 33 balls that propelled their score to 147 after being reduced to 70 for five.

Shukla felt Brendon McCullum’s dismissal was the turning point of the match. “McCullum’s was a soft dismissal. He was batting so well and if he had got going… That was the turning point.”

Shukla didn’t wish to put the blame on anyone and felt it was just a bad day out in the middle. “It can always happen when you are playing a Twenty20 game and in a league format. There are still 11 matches to go…”

Shukla felt the team should have put some more runs on the board. “The wicket wasn’t bad. The ball was nicely coming onto the bat. We’re short by 40/45 runs. A score of around 190 could have provided the competitive edge to the match,” he said.