Kolkata, Apr 30: Varun Chakaravarthy, who was adjudged Player of the Match in the game between Kolkata and Delhi said, ‘ It was holding a bit, as the game progressed in the 2nd innings, it was turning as well. [on him having a good match-up against Pant] Nothing like that, when the catch was dropped, I felt that was a better ball, and the one I got him, on other grounds, it would have gone for a six. Cricket has become a game of fine margins. I liked Tristan Stubbs’ wicket. I planned to bowl the legspinner to him and it worked out. [on conversations between him and Narine] Silence. When something doesn’t work for me, he is always there. In the last game after conceding so many runs, it was a tough pill to take but the whole team motivated us. Abhishek Nayar and even Shahrukh Khan came and spoke to me, definitely motivated us. [on the cheerleaders dancing] They should start dancing only for the sixers and not for the fours.’
Shreyas Iyer, KKR captain, said, [on if the pitch would play this way?] Not at all. Considering the last few matches, 200 was a par score. After the powerplay the pitch started helping the spinners, was tacky. We got a fair idea as to how it played and to tackle the tackiness. Narine still does not attend those meetings but Salt is always there, gives us his inputs and it’s pure bliss to see him coming up and doing all this. [if Narine attends meetings] He doesn’t. I would not recommend him to come either. [on Chakaravarthy] he has not been at his best the last few games. He has been assessing the wicket and has been giving us inputs. The way he turned up today was simply brilliant. [qualification] We have always been looking at it, even from the first game. The mindset is to qualify as early as possible. Just work on our work ethic and processes, don’t want to look at the points table.’
Rishabh Pant, DC captain, said, It was a good option to bat first. As a batting unit we didn’t bat well, 150 was below par with how things were going. But we learn from our mistakes, every day is not your day. The way we were going as a team was nice (winning 4 out of their last 5 games), but these games come along in T20s. I think anything around 180-210 would have been a good score, we didn’t give our bowlers enough runs to defend.