Bangalore, April 05: Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir, who saw his side take sole possession of the second spot on the league tables after his side beat the Anil Kumble-led Royal Challengers Bangalore, said that his side had played good cricket.
Gambhir called correctly at the toss and was rewarded with first use of the Kotla pitch, on which chasing is always harder.
“We played some very good cricket,” Gambhir said. “Winning the toss helps, I guess and once we had done that, we knew that if we put 180-185 runs on the board, we had the bowling to restrict the opposition.”
Gambhir said that Bangalore were a quality side, and Delhi hadn’t taken them lightly.
“Bangalore are a quality side and we are always threatened by them. But things are going our way and a score of 180 is always very difficult to chase. I think, once the runs are on the board, its up to the bowlers to deliver. We know what needs to be done to defend such a total and we have the bowlers for that. Rajat Bhatia sent down a brilliant spell today.
“If the pitch is soft and the ball does not come up to the bat, our bowlers have the ability to slow it down, same as they would be hitting the deck if the pitch was suitable.”
Asked if Delhi were good enough for the final, the skipper responded: “We haven’t even made the semi-finals yet. We have a couple of away games and our focus as of now is making the semi-finals.”
Bangalore skipper Anil Kumble, however, was not particularly impressed with the Kotla pitch.
“Winning the toss becomes vital on a track like this. It is not really an ideal pitch for Twenty20 cricket. I thought 150-160 could be chased but 185 was too much. We gave away 20-25 runs too many.”
Kumble also conceded that a change in thinking about the batting order might be warranted. “We tried everything. We even tried by sending Cameron White up the order. But I think we really need to rethink about sending Rahul Dravid up the order. We cannot rely on a Robin Uthappa or Ross Taylor to bail us out all the time.
“One loss doesn’t really matter, we have two home games coming up, we hope to pull it off there.”
Man-of-the-match Paul Collingwood said that coming off a 5-week tour of Bangladesh, has probably helped him acclimatize fast.
“I hit it pretty well,” said Collingwood after his 75 not out off 46 balls. “Being in Bangladesh for five weeks probably helped. We have been fortunate enough to win three tosses, but you still have to put in a good performance and we have.”
———Agencies