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| Chris Gayle en route to his unbeaten 82, in Mumbai, on Wednesday. (PTI) |
Mumbai: It was a sort of reality check for Dwayne Smith. The hero of the last match dropped countryman Chris Gayle’s catch when Royal Challengers Bangalore’s score was 34 for no loss in 5.2 overs. Gayle was batting on 21.
The catch probably cost Mumbai the match as the West Indian batsman went on to score another 61 runs and took his side home.
No wonder that Harbhajan Singh said at the post match presentation ceremony that if they could have taken Gayle's catch, the result might have been different.
The following are excerpts
Virat Kohli: It was big game for us. Playing Mumbai Indians in Mumbai is always a pressure game. They are a brilliant side. Obviously, it feels great to beat them at home. I think we have the right kind of momentum going for us. Hopefully, we can continue with this momentum in the coming matches.
I was feeling really good when I was batting. I was middling the balls. I wasn’t playing too well in the previous matches. My teammates kept on telling me that you will hit form at the right time. I hope that I can continue with this form. I think we are peaking at the right time. The bowlers really kept it tight. Vinay Kumar and Harshal Patel bowled brilliantly. Muralidharan is always a class act and Zaheer Khan only gave four runs per over.
Harbhajan Singh: To be honest, we are not too disappointed. We still have four games to go. I think Royal Challengers Bangalore played much better than we did.
It was an important toss, which Royal Challengers Bangalore won. Their bowlers utilised the conditions really well and bowled according to their plans. I think we were about 15-20 runs short. Still, we should have given them a tough fight. But we could not put up a good show. We were sloppy in our fielding. I think if we could have taken Chris Gayle’s catch, the result might have been different.
Chris Gayle: I am building a room for trophies! It is crunch time now. It was an important win today. I thought that the bowlers had put us in a good position by restricting Mumbai to 140-odd runs. Then (Tillekaratne) Dilshan and I gave a good start to the team. After Dilshan got out, Virat came in and played really well. It was a good team effort today. I am happy to play my part.
The key was to see off the new ball. Looking at the first innings, we realised that the new ball was doing a bit. We knew we had to see off Lasith Malinga. We were expecting two overs up front from him but he bowled three. After we saw him off, the task became easy. It was a good wicket to bat on. The ball was coming on to the bat and I could play my strokes.
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