Gautam Gambhir wants the best team to win the IPL final

Kolkata Knight Riders were outclassed by the Mumbai Indians in the Qualifier 2 which enabled them to go through to their 4th IPL final in their history. KKR could only master a total of 107 after batting first and it was the exceptional spell of 4/16 by Karn Sharma which halted their progress. The leggie bowled in the right areas and let the Bangalore pitch do the rest.

KKR captain Gautam Gambhir said that they were beaten by a better team yesterday as MI came well prepared for the match and had specific plans for different individuals. They had a plan for Chris Lynn and kept long on for him and he succumbed to their plan. He also said that it will be difficult to predict today’s winners and hoped that “may the best team win.”

Mumbai was better prepared in Qualifier 2

“Mumbai were better prepared,” KKR skipper was quoted as saying by the Indian Express. “They had long-on in place for Chris Lynn keeping in mind his inclination to hit straight. There was deep midwicket lurking when I batted against leg-spinner Karn Sharma.” He further added that Mumbai had cramped both the openers Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine which resulted in a stem in the run flow.

“Colin de Grandhomme who’d have seen little spin back in New Zealand was dished out a googly first-up. Cross-seam deliveries, slow bouncers were well-stocked and well-used. In the end, the better team won,” he said. The southpaw also lauded Rising Pune Supergiant whose youngsters have been pivotal to their success in the tournament so far.

“They have some real sparklers in their lineup and I am quite keen to see how their opening bat Rahul Tripathi performs. While Mumbai has the experience of two finals, Pune has personnel like MS Dhoni and Steve Smith who have won crunch moments in their IPL and international careers,” said Gambhir, “For once I’d like to be politically correct and say may the best team win.”