Bangalore captain Daniel Vettori hails Zaheer Khan for their win against Pune Warriors
The Royal Challengers Bangalore's skipper Daniel Vettori, cited Zaheer Khan’s performance with the ball as the key factor in his side’s emphatic victory against the Pune Warriors last night on 29 April, 2011 at Bangalore.
Bangalore thrashed Pune comprehensively, winning the 35th match of the Indian Premier League by 26 runs.
Put up to bat first, Vettori and company posted a massive total of 181 with the help two stellar innings from Gayle and Kohli.
Gayle opened for Bangalore and provided a fantastic start with his 49 off 26 while Kohli continued after Dilshan fell on 15.
Virat’s 67 off 42 coupled with de Villiers’ 26, led RCB to post 181 runs on the board by the end of 20 overs, losing 5 wickets in the process.
In response, the Warriors could only manage 155 in 20 overs. Despite Ryder’s 51 off 34, Pune could not manage to keep up with the required run-rate.
The skipper, Yuvraj Singh added another valuable 41 runs to the tally, however the required run-rate of 9.05 kept eluding the Warriors.
Vettori’s decision to bring Zaheer Khan back into the attack paid off. Zaheer dismissed Yuvraj when the former looked very dangerous. Singh’s dismissal washed out all chances of Pune’s success.
Enormously delighted over his team’s triumph, Vettori said, "There were a few scares along the way. The bowlers have stepped up in the previous two matches. Zaheer`s our best bowler, we took a chance bringing him on a little earlier, against Yuvraj, and fortunately it worked."
The former Kiwi captain further shared that his side was confident since the 182-run target was always going to be a tough one. Heaping praise on Kohli and Gayle for their fabulous batting, Vettori gave full credit to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khan-c71319 and Aravind who led the bowling charge.
Yuvraj, on the other hand, felt his team could not make a good beginning which eventually put the middle-order under immense pressure.
"I think we didn`t get enough runs in the first six overs. We gave 20 runs extra on the field. We decided not to lose too many wickets at the top, but Jesse and Manish couldn`t get enough runs, and Bangalore`s bowlers were good," Yuvraj said.
Meanwhile, the Pune skipper asked his players not to take defeat to heart and come up with a better performance in the upcoming games.
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