IPL 2017: Gautam Gambhir Asks For Improvement In Fielding Standards
Dec 23, 2018 at 11:12 AM
Before the start of the second innings, the successful chase that Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) accomplished against Gujarat Lions with Chris Lynn in their side was the only aspiring factor for them, as no matter the pitch, no matter the batting line-up, chasing a total of 210 in a T20 game is never easy.
You need an inspiration and more importantly a good start to chase this down.
KKR though had half-hearted inspiration but did not start well, as a punt to open with Sunil Narine failed this time and he was dismissed on the score of just one.
Gambhir followed him after a distance of three runs which dented early hopes of the chase, as KKR was two down for a score of 12.
His wicket somehow gave an idea that it’s all over for KKR but Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey generated hopes of a win by sharing 78 runs for the third wicket. Though both of them fell soon after that and in the end, KKR lost the game by a margin of 48 runs.
Bowlers are to be blamed for the loss, as it was unfair to expect batsmen to chase down humongous total after bowlers leak that much score.
Skipper Gautam Gambhir was not impressed with fielding efforts of the team and asked for improvement, as after the loss against SRH, he said –
Gautam Gambhir:
“I still thought that we need to improve in our fielding. We have been very sloppy so far in the tournament, we need to pull up our socks if we have to do well. Catches win matches and you cannot drop catches off a player like David Warner. They could not have got to that score if we had taken our chances. We have two more games at home, hopefully, we can play some good cricket.”