Winning eight games in a row and reaching the final was all about a great team effort, felt Piyush Chawla, who made a fine comeback helping the Kolkata Knight Riders scored a thumping win over Kings XI Punjab in the IPL-7 Qualifier 1 at the Eden Gardens here on Wednesday.
“Winning eight matches in a row is a big achievement and we very proud of accomplishing it as a team,” Chawla, who had the best economy rate as a spinner and figured prominently in the team’s dominant showing, said.
“The (Eden Gardens) wicket was on the slower side but we managed to make a match out of it backed by the good quality of bowling we had,” Chawla added.
“With the drizzle happening in the middle and the Duckworth-Lewis method coming in the scene, it helped us a bit giving us a few quick wickets,” the KKR bowler said.
“The win also spoke about the quality of bowling we have with the likes of Sunil (Narine), (Morne) Morkel, Shakib (Al Hassan) doing persistently well. Unlike other sides we went with five specialist bowlers and that has created the difference,” Chawla said looking at the eight successive wins — which is the best effort by KKR in IPL history.
“I am happy to have made a strong comeback after missing the last two games. I could bowl the way my team wanted and also got the crucial wicket of (David) Miller,” Chawla said.
The Duckworth-Lewis effect worked negatively on the minds of his batsmen ruining the chances of a win, said the KXIP head coach Sanjay Bangar.
“Our batsmen got a bit flustered by the rains midway and by the possibility of the D/L method coming into force. This robbed our innings of momentum,” Bangar said after the match.
“We did not bat the way we are capable of and none of our batsmen could reach the score of 40. That was a real dampener as I personally believe the score of 160 and thereabouts was par score on this wicket,” Bangar said.
