Disappointed he might be about his team Kolkata Knight Riders losing its IPl match against Delhi Daredevils here but veteran batsman Robin Uthappa says he is happy about finally being able to play “correct” cricket after cleaning up his technique.
Uthappa shone with a 41-ball 55 but KKR ended up losing against Delhi daredevils by four wickets. “I have changed my technique and I have cleaned up my cricket in a big way, which has helped me play more correct cricket. I believe while playing correct, you can still score a lot of runs and score at a good pace. Today’s innings against Delhi Daredevils was a proof of that,” Uthappa told the IPl’s official website.
Uthappa said there were quite a few positives to be picked from the loss last night. “It was a good performance, I think we did really well throughout the game and it was just that 18th over when JP Duminy took off that changed the course of the game. There are a lot of positives to take from this game,” the batsman said.
“The energy within the team was really good, which is very important in a tournament like this. The way Manish Pandey batted and Shakib Al Hasan finished and the manner in which Vinay bowled initially, are the positives we can take,” he added.
AB calmed the procedure down: Parthiv
Sharjah: Parthiv Patel, who won Man of the Match award for his half-century against Mumbai Indians, on Sunday showered encomiums on AB de Villiers for calming the roughed up proceedings and guide Rajasthan Royals to a convincing seven-wicket victory.
“I think I couldn’t have asked for any better person to come in at that time (when RCB was struggling at 17 for three). You know AB expectedly is one of the best batsmen in the world. He calmed the procedure down,” Parthiv said in an interview to RCB’s official website.
Parthiv said De Villiers took his time to settle down and asked him to take his time.
“We were in a bit of trouble initially but AB came in and he handled the ship and I just had to take singles and after that I took over,” he said.
“I said (to AB) that we just need to bat 20 overs, and if we can do that we will win. We needn’t worry about the runs, just play 20 overs and that exactly what we did,” he said.
Parthiv said the bowlers set the game for RCB by restricting Mumbai Indian to 115 on a difficult wicket. “The bowlers set the game for us on that wicket. Obviously it wasn’t easier, but our bowlers did a good job and restricted them to 115,” he said.