Kochi Tuskers Kerala skipper Mahela Jayawardene said that his team's win over the host Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday was the result of a great team effort.
“Overall it was a great team effort,” Jayawardene said after the match. “We had a long chat about the right combination (against KKR) as we always knew that it was going to be a scrappy game. We thought we needed all the dirty work today,” he added.
The KTK captain praised the way his team successfully executed the ‘game plan'.
“It was tough for us to bat first and get to 130 but we did that well. The bowlers bowled brilliantly under pressure. They bowled in good areas and picked up wickets and helped us in executing the game plan we had discussed. Our fielding was also outstanding where we created opportunities,” he said.
About breaking the winning combination to include Muttiah Muralitharan in the squad replacing Thisara Perera, Jayawardene said it was a tough but necessary decision. “We made changes according to the opposition and the conditions. They (KKR) had three left-handers in the side and we needed two off-spinners so Murali was the obvious choice. It was a debatable decision as Thisara had played in the previous two matches that we won. We have to make these tough calls and the entire group understands that,” he said.
Ganguly's inclusion
When asked about Sourav Ganguly's possible inclusion in the squad, Jayawardene said a player would be included in the side only if he fits in the team combination.
“Firstly I don't know whether I'll be able to play the whole IPL. But getting him (Sourav Ganguly) in the squad is the decision of the team management and they'll make the right call. I am just here to play cricket,” he said
“Getting one person into the squad depends on what we need in the team combination and the management will go for somebody if they require him. Like Steven Smith is not here, he went back to Australia and we did not replace him with anybody because we felt that the players we have are enough,” Jayawardene added.
Kolkata Knight Riders' captain Gautam Gambhir was sore about the way his batsmen let him down against Kochi Tuskers. “I think it was a complete batting failure, though the wicket was pretty much good to bat on compared to the one what we played (against Rajasthan Royals) in the last match,” he said.
“We should have chased the total easily because restricting them (KTK) to 132 was a great effort by the bowlers. As we say we bat really deep then we should have chased the total easily,” he added.
The KKR captain said it just needed one good individual effort with the bat to get to the total. “Someone should have put his hand up and said I am going to take this team through and that didn't happen. We kept losing wickets at crucial moments and the team lost its way,” he said.
