Defeat no laughing matter for Gilchrist

Kolkata: Adam Gilchrist’s face was a study in tiredness and grace as he came to meet the press: tiredness of another defeat, at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders, and the grace of handling that loss. Here are some excerpts from the Deccan Chargers’ captain’s interaction with the media.


Excerpts:

On being duped by KKR on April Fool’s Day: Yeah, Fool’s Day. (Smiles) They outplayed us today, so….

On essentially losing to one man (Sourav Ganguly): No, I wouldn’t say that we lost to one man. Sourav played a fine innings. Their bowling was very impressive, particularly late when it’s 50-50. We were ahead of their run-rate in comparison at the halfway mark, with wickets in hand, but they bowled very well with their change in pace, their variation, their yorkers, they were all a little more accurate. But definitely Sourav set the tone for them and played a wonderful innings.

On the total being big to chase on the slow pitch: It’s a big total, a big total to chase. Anything above nine [runs] an over, round about nine an over is a difficult chase on pretty much every wicket. We knew that we had to bat well and bat right for it, we had to use up every delivery. But we got off to a very good start, Herschelle (Gibbs) was great. I forgot my brain again today (laughs), so that was…we had spoken about not giving the match away, so obviously I did what I didn’t mean to, so it’s disappointing. We were in the hunt. But it was a tough ask.

On taking a leaf out of Matthew Hayden’s book and using the Mongoose bat: No, it is not in my plans at the moment, but I don’t think it is the equipment that has let me down. It is (points to his head and smiles).

On whether he is planning to change his approach towards batting: (Laughs) No.

On Murali Kartik being one of the most challenging spinners to face in the competition: Murali Kartik has been a challenging bowler to face, not just in this tournament or this format, but over the years that we have come up against him in internationals before, and certainly in this format he is proving very difficult. [He is a] very skillful bowler, very experienced and enjoying these conditions. Yeah, he is doing a wonderful job, he is a guy that Sourav turns to in times of need and often gets a wicket. Not too dissimilar as Pragyan Ojha for us, he is fantastic as I said in that post-match presentation. In hindsight it was a bit of a gamble bowling Pragyan with Sourav still there and Sourav got the better of him for most of the over. He (Pragyan) got him out in the end but that was probably a big over that changed the momentum a lot.

On the difference in the match being Murali Kartik’s spell: Oh, he contributed. There’s no doubt about it. I wouldn’t single out any one of their performances to be the best. I mean Sourav was obviously man of the match and all credit to him, but all their bowlers played their part, I thought they did very well, Bond coming back on at the end, he did a very good job, so they bowled a couple of real good overs and [had an] all-round package in the field, their fielding was sharp, ours left a bit to be desired and that is something we will try and improve on.

On Shane Bond: (Shane) Bond, he’s got great variety. He is another skillful, intelligent bowler. He has realised quickly it is not all about pace and aggression. He is executing all his variations very well and doing it in a very intelligent manner, so too Angelo (Mathews), and Ajit (Agarkar) bowled some particularly good yorkers. So in combination they are a very good unit together.

On where they are placed as defending champions at the halfway stage: Yes, we are one win less from what we were at this time last year. At the turn at seven games, four wins and three losses (last year), we are the other way around. So all is not lost and obviously it goes without saying there is work to be done but [I am] not really looking at the run of the tournament, if we want to entertain, being in the midst, after the home and away games, we need to improve our cricket. We need to improve in the areas where we have let ourselves down so that’s really the focus. Not say that we are still the champs or not the champs, that’s irrelevant. We want to get our focus on doing the things that we are doing well better.