The victorious Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir fels that it was a combination of good spin bowling and batting display that helped his team win the first semi-final against Hobart Hurricanes in the Champions League T-20 cricket championship here on Thursday.
Speaking to media after the match, Gambhir reminded that it was a very well-planned chase on a slow pitch. “Winning continuously and with this kind of a streak, you need to play well as a team. You can’t just be dependent on one department, and in that sense I think we’ve done pretty well,” he pointed out.
On Jacques Kallis’ match-winning knock, Gambhir it was an important innings as the team wanted someone who could anchor the innings and he had done that throughout his career. “He’s been an unbelievable player and a great contributor for us,” the KKR captain said.
“We haven’t thought about the final. We still need to play well and there are no chances of a slip-up,” he said.
“We haven’t thought about winning 14 games in-a-row. The only reason we have such a streak is we haven’t spoken about it in the dressing room. And, that shows the character of the team as well, with no complacency,” Gambhir explained.
“It is all about hunger and determination. At the start of this tournament, I said to someone that there are a lot of hungry guys who haven’t done well in this competition. There are a lot of determined characters in the dressing room as well and this shows that the hunger is still there,” the KKR captain explained.
“Playing in Bangalore doesn’t bother us at all. You have to play well, the venue doesn’t matter. We’re a quality side and we’ve shown it again and again. One more game to go and then maybe guys can relax and take it easy from there on,” Gambhir said.
“Spin bowling has been our strength. It doesn’t matter. You have to use the quality you have to the best of your ability and we have three quality spinners who have been doing a great job,” the winning captain concluded.
Hobart Hurricanes captain Xavier Doherty felt there were too few runs on the board. “We knew that the spinners were going to be a challenge for us. Maybe in hindsight, we could have been more proactive, but unfortunately losing wickets held us back a little bit,” he remarked.
“We knew we had the bowling attack to defend 140 and more. And, who knows, if Hilfenhaus had taken that catch at the end, what would have happened in the last five balls,” Doherty pointed out.
On Manish Pandey being caught of a no-ball when he was on 22 off Ben Hilfenhaus, Doherty said they were game changers. “But there are dozens and dozens through the innings. You’d like that one back again, but unfortunately you can’t have it.”
On tournament take-aways for his team, Doherty said they were here to make an impression and put Tasmanian cricket out there which he thought was done. “Getting to this stage along with three other IPL teams is a bit of a feather in our cap,” he concluded.
