Skipper Gambhir asked bowlers to show intent & pride: Chris Woakes

The Kolkata Knight Riders pace bowler Chris Woakes said that the skipper Gautam Gambhir wanted the bowlers to show some “intent & pride” while playing against the Royal Challengers Bangalore last night. The KKR bowlers with their crucial bowling dismissed RCB for just 49 runs which is the lowest total in the history of Indian Premier League.

KKR batted first and pinch-hitter cum opener Sunil Narine was the top run-getter. He scored 34 runs from 17 balls including 6 boundaries and 1 six and rest of the batsmen failed to score big. In the end, KKR managed to score only 131 runs. For RCB, Yuzvendra Chahal picked up 3 wickets while Tymal Mills and Pawan Negi each took 2 wickets.

“The captain asked us to show some intent and some pride. The opening bowlers set the tone for us. From there on, it was just trying to put the ball in right areas,” Chris Woakes said after the match.

Then RCB came in to bat but, the KKR bowlers destroyed their batting line-up completely. The skipper Virat Kohli went for a golden duck and all the players just visited the crease to complete the formality and returned to the pavilion without making any difference.

In no time the RCB batsmen curled down for just 49 runs while the KKR bowlers stifled them within 10 overs. In an exceptional display of pace bowling up front, Nathan Coulter-Nile (3-0-21-3) and Umesh Yadav (3-0-15-1) ripped apart the vaunted RCB top-order in power play, before Woakes (2-0-6-3) and Colin de Grandhomme (1.4-0-4-3) completed the formality.

The English pacer also said that Eden Garden is a good batting surface but their bowlers did well and the wicket was quite nice to bowl on.

“The wicket was nice to bowl on. At the Eden Gardens, if you are off the area, you get punished because the outfield is quick. It actually is a good batting surface. As we have seen in previous games, 180 is par which is a good T20 score. But we bowled quite well on that pitch,” he said.

“I think I would be lying to say that we came at the half time saying that we would definitely win the game. Not often you defend 130 particularly here at Eden Gardens,” said the 28 year old pace bowler.

Chris Woakes also added, “It was a good toss to win (for RCB). We actually were looking to bowl first. In general, we like to chase on this ground. It usually is a good batting surface, the outfield is quick and you can always chase down almost any target.”