Gautam Gambhir asks KKR to play smart and better cricket

After suffering an embarrassing 7-wicket loss at the hands of Auckland Aces, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir quickly realised that his team needs to play smart and better cricket in order to stay alive in the ongoing T20 Champions League.

The Knight Riders still have a couple of games left in the tournament, and they require winning both to reach the next round. Talking at the post-match presentation ceremony, Gambhir said:

"We need to play some smart cricket, some better cricket than what we are capable of and try to get the results in our favour. Hopefully, we can win both our remaining games. We need to win our next two games, that’s very important for us."

On the other hand, Azhar Mehmood continued to show match-winning performances for Auckland. The veteran all-rounder performed magnificently both with the bat and ball, and guided the side to an emphatic win.

Gambhir admitted that Azhar’s 10^th over entirely changed the game, when he picked up important wickets of Jacques Kallis and Manoj Tiwary. Talking about the turning point of the contest, the Indian left-hander shared:

"Azhar’s first over turned the entire momentum in their favour. We lost two wickets in that particular over. The way they (Auckland Aces) bowled, a lot of credit should be given to them."

Auckland skipper Gareth Hopkins heaped praise on Azhar, adding that a comprehensive win over KKR has boosted team’s confidence to a great extent. He sated after the match:

"The win against KKR has really boosted our confidence. Those two wickets by Azhar helped us a lot in restricting them. We got off to a good start with the bat and we left it to the master Mahmood to finish it off as well as he does."

Expressing delight over his wonderful show, Man-of-the-Match Azhar Mehmood uttered, "I am quite pleased with my performance. We prepared really well, two weeks before the tournament and it has paid off. Martin Guptill and Vincent started off really well
and I was able to finish off. Hopefully, I can keep my form going."

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Oct 16 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry