The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : I had to finish off the match: Gambhir

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I had to finish off the match: Gambhir

Durban: Stand-in Delhi Daredevils captain Gautam Gambhir said he had to curb his usual aggressiveness and drop anchor against Kolkata Knight Riders as he did not want to repeat his side’s failure to finish off in its last Indian Premier League game.

Delhi was well on course for a win against Chennai Super Kings but two set batsmen failed in the last five overs to lose the game and Gambhir said he had to take the responsibility as captain.

“Last time two set batsmen failed to finish off against Chennai. We had a lot of talk in the team not to repeat that situation. I had to take responsibility and finish the match,” Gambhir said after his side’s nine-wicket victory over Kolkata.

Asked about the gameplan, Gambhir, man-of-the-match for his unbeaten 71, said, “I think Kolkata was short by 20 runs.”

“Initially we thought we would have to chase 180. But Amit Mishra and Ashish Nehra bowled beautifully to restrict them. On this wicket, 150 plus is chaseable,” he added.

Gambhir also heaped praise on Tillakaratne Dilshan, who contributed an unbeaten 42.

“Dilshan played like a thorough professional. I hope he continues to play like this. We have seven more matches and we want to reach the semifinals,” he said.

Disappointed

Kolkata captain Brendon McCullum was disappointed that his side lost yet again and agreed that fielding let the team down.

“Probably we were 20 runs short in our innings. We needed to win each and every game but it seems it is getting more and more difficult,” he said.

“For most part of match our fielding was not good. We can’t win matches if we dropped catches like that,” McCullum, who himself dropped man-of-the-match Gautam Gambhir of Delhi, said.

McCullum, however, did not want to take away credit from the Delhi batsmen and said, “all three of them batted beautifully. They batted professionally.” — PTI

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