JOIN USThe skipper admitted as much. “We need to build back the momentum now and it’s important after two back-to-back defeats to sit back and look at the areas we need to improve in before the next game. But if somebody hits a 50-ball hundred then you can’t do much after that, isn’t it,” Gambhir told reporters here on Friday after his team suffered a nine-wicket defeat to RCB.
“But we are not short on confidence as we are very much in the competition and we know we can turn it around in the coming matches,” Gambhir added. Knight Riders started their innings in a frenzied way with openers Jacques Kallis and Brad Haddin carting the Royal Challengers bowlers around. At that time, it looked as if the hosts would get a bigger total than the eventual 171. But they couldn’t maintain the tempo and Gambhir said it was tough to keep scoring at the same rate.
“It’s tough to keep that kind of momentum through an innings. Still, we thought 171 was a good total to defend but the pitch eased out quite a bit in the second innings and the ball too didn’t grip after pitching as much as we thought. But then again, if a batsman like Gayle plays that kind of an innings, calculations will not have much relevance,” Gambhir said.
On leaving out pacer Brett Lee against a strong batting line-up like Bangalore, Gambhir said, “On hindsight, I can say I missed Lee. But this pitch has offered a lot to spinners in the last two matches so that’s why we went this combination and we made a defendable total as well. But Gayle played a brilliant innings,” Gambhir said.