Captain slams batsmen for irresponsible shots and over-aggressive approach after Kolkata Knight Riders make a mess of their 174-run chase against MI
KKRâÂu00c2u0080Âu00c2u0088skipper Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir was in no mood to mince words on Saturday night, blasting his batsmen for "irresponsible shots" as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) were defeated and denied a top-two berth in the play offs by a depleted Mumbai Indians (MI).
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"It looked as if they wanted to chase it down in 10 overs. Everyone was just throwing their bat at everything," fumed the skipper after an over-aggressive KKR made a mess of their 174-run chase at the Eden Gardens.
'Sensible batting needed'
"The kind of wicket it was, if we had batted sensibly, we would have definitely chased down that total," he said, stressing on the need for someone to bat till the end.
KKR's Kuldeep Yadav loses his footing while attempting a shot vs Mumbai Indians on Saturday. Pic/PTI
After setting "the perfect example of playing a perfect game", Rohit Sharma was happy that MI would be carrying the winning momentum into the play offs. "We wanted to finish (the league stage) on a high. We wanted to play the cricket we did throughout the tournament and we did exactly that," the MI skipper gushed, not forgetting to point to the "great bench strength" as Mumbai rested six of their first-choice players.
"They were going at 10 runs an over at one stage, but we kept taking wickets and it kept us in the game. When batsmen go after the bowlers it's difficult to stay calm and execute the plans, but we did that. And it gave us the result we wanted," Rohit said.
Ambati Rayudu and Saurabh Tiwary, two men coming of the bench, made it count with fifties. "The one thing good about our team management is that the reserve players get to play a lot in the nets.
Good bench strength
"You never get a feel that you're out of the team. We are always prepared," said Saurabh when asked how difficult it was to get into the groove after sitting out for so long. "We have a very good bench strength. It's good that it was tested today."
Trent Boult, defending KKR's failure with the bat, blamed it on everything from a "two-paced wicket" to being denied "the luxury of bowling second". "It's a formula we have followed throughout the tournament," he said when asked if KKR could have done it differently. "It's just unfortunate that it didn't work out tonight."
The Knights, their confidence bruised, are flying out to Bangalore today for Wednesday's Eliminator while Mumbai returned to their backyard, where they play Qualifier 1 tomorrow.
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