Having faltered one last time in IPL 2019, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Dinesh Karthik conceded there was a lot of work to do for the team to get back to its best.

"Through the whole tournament, we've been good a lot of times, bad at a lot of times, but this tournament is such that we had to play consistent cricket and we were not up to the mark," he said at the post-match presentation. "It's been decent. I don't think it's the best season that we've had. There's definitely a lot of areas for us to improve and come back stronger next time."

KKR began the season very strongly, winning matches they seemed set to lose thanks to the brilliance of Andre Russell. But then they fell into a rut, losing six matches on the trot. Even so, they came into this game against Mumbai Indians with a very good chance of making the playoffs. All they had to do was win.

But the combination of Lasith Malinga, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah were too difficult to handle. So much so that after being 49 for 0 at the end of the Powerplay, they finished 133 for 7.

"We didn't find momentum after the first six overs," Karthik said. "We'd set it up beautifully at the end of six overs but after that we didn't really get going. We kind of put the brakes on the way we batted and wickets falling didn't help either.

"When we batted, it held up a bit, it wasn't that easy for stroke-making and also they had some bowlers who were good with cutters and made it that much more harder whereas in the second innings, with a little bit of dew, it became much better to bat on."

The question of Russell batting higher up the order has been one that's hounded KKR through the tournament and it came up again.

"We had decided when there's an opportunity for him to bat up the order we were going to send him there," Karthik said. "I think the last three games we've done it. But it happens. I think he's a human being as well. He's been terrific through the tournament, he's been outstanding for us, to expecting him to deliver every time is unfair."