Bangalore, April 05: Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Sourav Ganguly had disappointment writ large on his features after his side’s loss to the Kings XI Punjab, and he blamed a poor bowling effort.
Kolkata had put up a formidable total of 200, thanks to a brutal 88 off 42 balls from Chris Gayle, but that was trumped by Mahela Jayawardene’s classy century.
“We didn’t bowl well,” said Ganguly. “At no stage of the match did we manage to put them under any sort of pressure. The boundaries kept coming all through their innings. I don’t think we were short of the ideal total. We batted well to reach 200. I think the total was defendable. Usually, when we score above 180, we manage to defend it.”
When asked if it would be tougher for the Knight Riders going forwards, since they have a few matches against the teams from the top of the table lined up, Ganguly said that more important than the opponent was how they themselves (KKR) played.
“The wicket was good. It was good for us when we batted and also for them. It’s not a question of facing the tougher teams in the upcoming matches, but the important thing is how we play. We have beaten the top two sides from last year, so anything can happen in this format. We need to win to go forward.”
Winning captain Kumar Sangakkara was all smiles after a rare win for Punjab, and gave full credit to his compatriot and Punjab team-mate Mahela Jayawardene for his classy century.
“The hundred by Mahela clinched the match,” Sangakkara said. “Chris (Gayle) nearly took the game away from us. But in the dressing room, we said to ourselves that we just need a great start and follow it up with doing the basics right. We are a good side, better than we have played this season. I’m happy that we now have the right kind of attitude. It has certainly improved.
“Mahela has been brilliant in the middle-order all through his career. But lately he has opened in some matches at the domestic level. He played some lovely shots today. The good thing was it was devoid of undue risk and he stayed there long enough to finish the game.”
When asked if Jayawardene’s innings proved classy batsmen had a role to play in Twenty20 cricket, Sangakkara countered that it was the classy batsmen who were already dominating.
“If you look at the top-scorers in the tournament – Sachin and Kallis – they are both classy batsmen. All who have got runs have got them by playing proper cricketing shots. From here, we just want to take each game as it comes. We want play to win and hope that we are able to keep up the attitude and motivation which we showed today.”
Centurion Mahela Jayawardene said that he had himself gone up to captain Sangakkara and coach Tom Moody and asked to open the innings given the injury to Shaun Marsh.
“I was asked to play after the warm-up and I suggested to Tom and Sanga that I was ready to open the innings. When you get a hundred, that too for a winning cause, it’s always special. This is definitely my best knock in the IPL.”
Jayawardene said that the Punjab side showed a lot of character in coming back from defeats to win a tough match.
“We fought hard, showed a lot of character. We, as cricketers play for pride. We were very disappointed with our performances and we take responsibility for that.
“We have made a few mistakes in the last few games that cost us matches. But today we managed to finish the game off on a high and are quite happy.”
———Agencies