Bengaluru: The Australians’ dominance in IPL-7 has been quite appealing, be it Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Johnson, Steven Smith or James Faulkner. But true to the name of the league, it was the Indians who shone bright when it mattered the most. While Wriddhiman Saha went berserk for Kings XI Punjab, Manish Pandey turned the match-winner for Kolkata Knight Riders.
Losing captain George Bailey an Aussie himself, is a man whose smile rarely leaves him. Although his infectious smile was replaced by a sombre look after the heart-wrenching title defeat, he was all praise for his band of talented men, who fought valiantly till the end.
Excerpts:
On having a centurion on the board, yet ending on the losing side: I am not sure. Sometimes it's better to lose finals by big margins, isn't it? The closer the margin, the more what ifs you have and things you think about that you could have done differently. But I don't think our guys can do anything but be very proud of their performance.
On Wriddhiman Saha: His innings in a lot of way summed up our tournament. He is probably a guy who is unheralded a little bit, probably underrated in a lot of circles but for us, he has just been solid as a rock. He has done different jobs at different times he has been a wonderful person on and off the field, so to see him perform well was fantastic.
On Akshar Patel: He is such an impressive package. Right from the first day, the knowledge and awareness of his own game that he has for a 20-year-old is phenomenal. We tried to look after him and used him at times that we thought would be most beneficial to him but by the end of the tournament, he was bowling our key overs, he was our real go-to bowler. I think he is going to have a long and very successful career.
On coach Sanjay Bangar's influence: Huge influence. He just had to duck off really quickly, Sanjay had to try and grab the group together really quickly. It is hard to convey. This is a wonderful group of people, most importantly, and Sanjay is the leader of that, he is the head of that. Everything that you see and like about Kings XI starts with Sanjay Bangar. His knowledge of the game is wonderful, his ability to draw the younger players out of their shells to play as well as they have has been phenomenal.
