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East London: John Buchanan, who heads the cricket operations of the Kolkata Knight Riders, spoke to The Telegraph on Friday evening.
The following are excerpts
Q Half the league matches are over and the Knights only have three points. Awfully disappointing, isn’t it?
A Occupying the bottom of the table isn’t the best position to be in... But I suppose, with all optimism, it’s not a totally hopeless situation... Not one person in the team has given up or will give up... Mathematically, we’ve still got a chance of making the semi-finals and we’ll be fighting in every match. The best, as of now, is to try and make the last-four... With seven matches remaining, there’s much cricket left in this tournament.
Friday’s defeat notwithstanding, the team did look different on the park...
Our bowling and fielding was excellent... There were only a few poor deliveries and a couple of misfields... As for batting, 149 was gettable, but we haven’t been making the most of the first six overs... We lost two wickets (Sourav Ganguly, Chris Gayle) in the first six, cancelling out our taking two wickets in the first session... We just haven’t been able to capitalise on the first six overs. If you miss out there, then you’re in a catch-up situation... Having said that, Brad Hodge and Morne van Wyk did bat very well.
Reflecting on the first seven matches, where did the Knights get it all wrong?
Not being able to win the battle, both while batting and bowling, in the first six overs. That’s the most critical phase in a T20 game... To talk of today (Friday), we did take two wickets in the first six overs, but ourselves lost two in our first six... Matches are getting decided on the basis of the team making fewer errors.
Friday’s match, though, should’ve been won by the Knights...
Yeah, we did get ourselves into a winning position, but weren’t good enough.
Tactically, weren’t the Knights outsmarted in the last two matches — when Kevin Pietersen opened with a double spin attack and, then, when Sachin Tendulkar held back the fifth bowler’s last over till the very end?
I wouldn’t necessarily agree with you... Good for them for having done that, but I don’t think we were outsmarted. Outplayed, perhaps...
You’ve spoken of not giving up, but how is the team going to lift itself?
Look, despite the loss, I personally felt much better here... We’ve got to look at the positives and draw inspiration from them... Build on the positives, like our bowling and fielding against the Mumbai Indians... We’ve been dealing with the losses very well... I don’t see any fragmentation, don’t see cracks appearing.
The Knights invited negative headlines in the lead-up to this edition of the IPL. Did that affect on-field performances?
Not at all.
Not even changing the captain at the last minute?
But it wasn’t at the last minute... We’d tried different captains at our camp, in Bloemfontein, and everybody had an idea of the way we’d be moving forward.
Your choice for the captaincy, Brendon McCullum, is going through the leanest of patches. What will you tell him in the next one-on-one?
(Grins) One-on-ones cover a range of things... I guess he has to work on the basics, that needs to be done whenever batsmen aren’t getting runs or bowlers aren’t getting wickets. Brendon knows his game very well, so working on the basics should do.
Have you been happy with Sourav’s approach?
Absolutely... He’s been excellent and there hasn’t been a problem at all… He’s had a couple of good innings and a couple of not good innings, but that’s the nature of T20... You can’t always string together good performances.
Has Van Wyk been the find, so to say, for the Knights?
He’s done exceptionally in the two matches... (After a pause) I’d like to say Ishant (Sharma) is better this year... He’s shown a big improvement... (Wriddhiman) Saha is promising... There are good signs, yes.
At this stage, what’s the update on Gayle?
He could be available for Sunday’s match (against the Kings XI Punjab) as well... Things are still being worked out. We always knew he’d have to leave (for England) after the first seven or eight matches.
What has made the difference for top-placed teams like the Deccan Chargers and the Delhi DareDevils (No.1 and 2 after Friday’s matches)?
Their players have stepped up, both signings from overseas and from within India... In both categories, performances have been significant.
Are you, personally, under a lot of pressure?
Look, nobody likes to be losing all the time... I think we all are learning more about the T20 game and individuals.
The final one. What will be your theme at the team meeting ahead of Sunday’s match in Port Elizabeth?
While winning is important, we shouldn’t get too caught up with results all the time... Of course, we’ve got to keep working on the areas where we aren’t doing well... The first six overs while batting, for example.
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