KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir lauds Robin Uthappa for his match winning half century

KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir lauds Robin Uthappa for his match winning half century: This was almost a revenge game for Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) as they had gone down against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK)  a couple of days ago chasing 134, falling 2 runs short of the target. A home game is always the perfect opportunity to get back some form and momentum with thousands of fans routing for you. KKR did just that and it was a splendid, mature, calculated and unbeaten innings by their opener Robin Uthappa which laid the foundation for KKR to chase 165. At the end of the match skipper Gautam Gambhir was full of praises for this opener and the way he batted along with all-rounder Andre Russell.

The KKR bowlers gained control over the proceedings right from the start of the innings, striking regular wickets but a late charge by spinner Pawan Negi got Chennai to a competitive 165. It was never going to be easy against a bowling and fielding line that CSK has. Gambhir felt it was a really good show by his team to beat the table toppers’ he said, “We had great firepower, Robin and Russell batted extremely well. Robin batted till the end; the way he batted was the key. One of the top 3 had to bat for a long time. Robin had the temperament to bat for long and he showed us his class today,”

Gambhir said it was important for them to overcome the loss and perform well in this match, “It was a very important test for us, especially the way we messed up in the last match. It was a test of our character and temperament, the guys stood up to the challenge. If you want to play like defending champions, we had to pass this test. The way Russell and Robin (Uthappa) batted, was just too good,” he said.

He praised his bowlers and batsmen for their efforts but also admitted that the CSK lower order managed to score more runs than they expected to contain them for, “We pulled things back magnificently after the initial pounding from Brendon (McCullum). The guys batted aggressively and took us home. We thought about containing them to 120-130 after they lost those wickets. But we knew that we can chase it down after they went past 160,” He further added.

Man of the Match for his all-round effort West Indian Andre Russell after receiving the award said, “My role was to go in and play positively. I got a few off the middle and then hit two sixes, got it going in the middle. Just keeping your eye on the ball is the key. I kept reminding myself about how I have a tendency to throw my wicket away. The boys turned it around from the last game. We cruised all along and lost it in the end there. We knew that we had to forget what happened in Chennai and move past it. We did that today and won the game,”