“Just the second ball, I’ve got to be a bit sharper and ready to go. I wasn’t quite switched on and that’s obviously an eagerness in me to get going, having not played as much cricket as the others. That’s just not quite sharp enough. You’ve got to have a little look at the ball and give yourself a bit of time.”
Kings XI skipper Adam Gilchrist’s honest admission of his failure to lead from the front dominated the discussion at the post-match press conference, after his side slipped to a six-wicket defeat to Rajasthan Royals on Sunday.
The Australian added that his team committed a number of silly errors, most notably its inability to bat out the entire 20 overs.
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Despite running RR close in the end, Gilchrist claimed the match slipped from KXIP’s hands after it conceded “too many easy runs in the first 3-4 overs.”
Home team captain Rahul Dravid also acknowledged the importance of Shane Watson’s initial assault. “Chasing was not easy on this wicket since it assisted the bowlers till the end,” he said.
When asked whether the bowler-friendly track at the SMS was part of RR’s pre-tournament strategy, Dravid replied in the negative.
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“We’ve been a bit smart with the way we’ve built the squad. We didn’t have the depth in the last couple of years. Now we have the option of changing our squad on a different wicket. Got some good spinners in the reserves,” claimed the former India skipper.