Gautam Gambhir gave me confidence and showed faith in me - Ryan ten Deoschate

Ryan ten Doeschate

The Dutch all-rounder Ryan ten Deoschate has showered praise on his Kolkata Knight Riders’ skipper Gautam Gambhir for giving him confidence and has called him a good captain for his own methods.

"He (Gautam Gambhir) is brilliant. He has given me a lot of confidence as a player. He has showed faith in me. Gautam is pretty quiet and I believe that you don't need to be loud. You don't need to talk a lot and throw your weight around. So I think he is a very good captain," ten Doeschate told PTI in an interview.

The Knights registered their second win in two games in Champions League T20 and are on the 11-match winning streak dating back from IPL 2014. With their bowling line-up performing to the best of their abilities led by the miserly Sunil Narine and batsmen coming into form, the 34-year-old feels that the defending IPL champions can add the CLT20 crown to their glory.

"I think we are a good side. But in T20, every team makes sure that there are no easy matches. To our advantage, we have won a big competition in recent times and hope to take the momentum forward. So we draw from that experience and hope to keep the winning habit going. So once we reach the semifinals we will give ourselves a chance to win the competition," said ten Doeschate.

The South African born Dutch cricketer who played a match-winning innings of 51 from 41 balls along with Andre Russel (58 off 25) in their opening fixture against Chennai Super Kings, informed that scoring hundreds will make everyone notice players from Associate nations.

"I had played county cricket before that so I had made a name for myself at first-class level in domestic and one-day cricket. But playing for the Netherlands was always a big opportunity to make a bigger name for myself against big teams. Scoring a hundred really makes people sit up and recognise that there are players from the associate nations who can play well," said Doeschate, who has a century to his name in World Cup 2011 against England.

KKR take on Perth Scorchers in Hyderabad today.