Kolkata Knight Riders captain Sourav Ganguly said at the post match presentation ceremony that the X-factor, that was missing in the last three matches, was back against the Kings XI Punjab on Saturday .

The following are excerpts

Sourav: It was good to get a win... To be honest, our batting dipped against Chennai and Rajasthan… As I said after losing to Mumbai, we have finally got the X-factor going our way. We also needed an extra 10-15 runs which we got... As far as my batting is concerned, I have been in decent form, a couple of good thirties… good to get a 50 today. I am happy with the performance of the overseas players. We spend a lot of time deciding which overseas players to play, but as long as the 7 Indian players do well, we will be in good shape. I was never too worried about the three defeats. Anyone can come back in this format. Rajasthan have shown it by winning three in a row. The main thing is to continue playing freely, and hopefully, keep winning.

Kumar Sangakkara: I never got going, neither did Mahela, and left too much for the later players like Irfan, Goel and Brett. But we have to settle down now. As for fielding, the intensity was there but while batting we lost the momentum . There’s only one way to go now and that is up.

Manoj Tiwary (MoM): Today the wicket was very good to bat on. There was not much lateral movement. I took time to settle down and then accelerated. It was important for me to do well. Yuvraj’s catch was also very important. I had to take that catch as Yuvi is one who could have taken the match away from us... It helped me relax.

Dav Whatmore: It is the second Man of the Match award for Manoj in six matches and we are very happy for him. He has been transferred from another franchise and it’s important for us and for him to do well. Sourav also did well and led from the front. The urgency and intensity was lacking in the last few matches and it was back today. When one loses a few matches, it’s easy to be emotional but we need to focus on the attributes. We need to bring about little changes from game to game.