Kolkata, April 20 (IANS) Blaming the batsmen for a humiliating loss against Chennai Super Kings in their Indian Premier League match at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir Saturday said it was time for his willowers to pull up their socks.
“Our batsmen have been committing schoolboy errors. In fact, we have been batting badly since the last few games. It is high time the batsmen pulled up their socks and performed,” Gambhir said after his team’s four-wicket loss.
Though he credited his bowlers, but said the team was not performing well as a unit.
“We have not been up to the mark. We have not been performing well as a team, it’s time for us to pull up the socks,” added Gambhir.
KKR coach Trevor Bayliss also lamented the poor batting display and said the final target of 120 runs was at least 20 runs short of what was needed.
“At one point of time we were thinking of a 160 target. Had we batted sensibly we could have easily reached that or may be more. The run outs did not help. We were 20 runs short,” said Bayliss at the post match media conference.
“We did not bat well. Even in the last few games we bowled and fielded well but did not bat well. It is time we transformed the confidence that we have in our bowling and fielding into our batting,” said the coach.
Bayliss also defended the team’s decision to send the out of form Yusuf Pathan to open the innings as well as asking Debabrata Das to keep wickets instead of regular keeper Manvinder Bisla who was dropped for the Saturday’s game.
“Both Pathan and Das did a decent job,” said Bayliss.
Languishing at the seventh spot after managing just two wins from six games, the KKR coach was hopeful of the team putting their title defence campaign on track.
“The more games you lose the tougher it gets. But we still have few more games to do and we are more than capable of winning games on the trot. We have done it in the previous edition and we hope to repeat the same,” added Bayliss.
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