We messed it up by playing too many dot balls: Gautam Gambhir

Chennai, April 29 (IANS)

Going down to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in a thriller, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Gautam Gambhir on Tuesday said his batsmen messed up the game by playing too many dot balls and failing to rotate the strike.

Gambhir said his opening batsman Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey had started off well, but could not carry on.

“We just got stuck. We should have rotated the strike. Letting the spinners run away with three or four runs an over was not on,” Gambhir said after the match at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium which his team lost by only two runs.

Replying to CSK's 134/6, KKR could get to only 132/9. Gambhir said the top four batsmen in his team should have batted till the 15th over.

“One of the top four has to bat till the 15th over. Especially in these kinds of totals. We need to be smarter. We need to stop playing so many dot balls, that's where we messed up,” he said.

“Restricting Chennai to 134 was tremendous”

Gambhir hoped to turn the tables on Chennai in the second leg game on April 30 at the Eden Gardens.

“We play them again in two days, so hopefully we can turn it around,” he said.

However, Gambhir praised his bowlers for containing Chennai within 134.

“Containing Chennai to 134 was tremendous. Should have chased it down, especially with the start we got. But the batsmen got stuck,” says Gautam Gambhir,

“When you win the toss and put the opposition in, and you restrict them to 134 was fantastic,” he said.