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Kumble hints at batting order change

Last Updated 04 April 2010, 19:56 IST

 Chasing the Delhi Daredevils’ 184 for five, the Challengers were restricted to 147 for nine, losing momentum between overs six and ten when they scored only 20 runs.

“It is an area that we must address,” the Challengers’ skipper said on Sunday night. “We have Rahul (Dravid) batting at number seven, and we will think about pushing him up the order. We can’t expect Robin (Uthappa) and Ross (Taylor) to score 13 runs an over every time and bail the team out. We needed to go hard at the bowling all the time even if we lost wickets, because in any case, we bat deep.”

 At the same time, Kumble said, the Feroze Shah Kotla strip wasn’t ideal for Twenty20 cricket. “The toss is very crucial on these tracks,” he observed. “Yes, we could have bowled better and yes, we could have made a better fist of it while chasing, but this tack isn’t ideal for T20 cricket. Maybe 150-160 was gettable on this surface, 185 was too much.”

 The Challengers are third in the points table, with a semifinal slot not yet secured. “Victory today would have helped. But we have two games at home now. We need to regroup and need to do well. I don’t think we played consistently well today over the period of 40 overs,” Kumble said.

 Gautam Gambhir was understandably delighted with the victory. “The Royal Challengers are a quality side, but 185 was going to be difficult to chase on this surface,” the Daredevils skipper agreed. “Winning the toss was crucial, but we also played some very good cricket. Once you have so many runs on the board, the bowlers know how to bowl on this pitch. We have played a lot of cricket at the Kotla, we know what variations to use and how to bowl here to make things difficult for the batsmen.”

There was unstinted praise for Paul Collingwood, the man of the match. “He showed today that he doesn’t just graft,” Gambhir pointed out. “In the first game, he grafted when Warner was going great guns. Today he was completely different, and it shows how versatile he is. He hit some big sixes. Also, he provides a sixth bowling option, even if he wasn’t required to bowl today.”

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(Published 04 April 2010, 17:55 IST)

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