‘I love coming back to Chandigarh’

Mohali: Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Sourav Ganguly was naturally a pleased man as his side notched a win after three losses. Here's more from his interaction with the media.

Excerpts

On the win

Yes naturally it is good to win and hopefully we can carry it on.

On the chances of reaching the semis

Semi-final toh bahut door hain, bahut matches pade hain aage, sirf chheh match hue hain aur aath match pade hain. Humaare 6 home games hain. Ek ek match lenge, semi-final bahut door hain. Har team daud main hai kyunki abhi toh yeh tournament shuru hua hain. [The semi-finals are still far away, there are lots of games remaining. Only six games are done so far, eight are left. We will take one match at a time, the semis are still far away. Every team is in contention because the tournament has just started].

On the two early wickets

Just play positively. This game demands playing positive cricket. You don’t have time to play yourself in, you just got to keep playing

On whether he was pleasantly surprised by Yuvraj Singh opening

Yeah, I was actually. I think Yuvraj in the middle would have been an even more dangerous player. They have to define a few things, they haven’t had many wins before this game so probably they tried to give Yuvraj twenty overs. But a Yuvraj Singh coming in the fifth over and batting till the twentieth could have been even more dangerous because he can give the impetus anytime during the game.

On the change in the team’s body language

Well when you win it looks good, man, when you don’t it, doesn’t look good. That’s the name of the game and I have seen that for the last 15 years, so I just don’t worry about it. We try and [put in an] effort every game and honestly, this game demands playing freely and we try and do that every game. So you win some and lose some. Every game, every team will win some and lose some – it [all hinges on] which part of the tournament you win and which part of the tournament you lose. We will try and stay positive and hopefully we can keep doing well.

On Manoj Tiwary being selected for the World T20 side

Just let him play. He has got a long way to go. The Indian team has already been selected, he has got no chance of getting in. So let’s not try and waste that question.

On Manoj Tiwary’s injury

He has got cramps, he is not injured. He should be fine.

On Mohali being his lucky ground

Yeah, this is a great venue for me. Honestly I was actually telling someone I love coming back to Chandigarh and playing here.