James Franklin http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Arthur-Percival-Day-c45927 to stay till the end against Kolkata
After guiding his team to an emphatic four-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Rider (KKR) in the elimination-round game last night, Mumbai Indians’ all-rounder, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/James-Edward-Charles-Franklin-c65626, revealed that the team management asked him to stay at the crease till the end
and fortunately he got successful in that.
Having been asked to bat first, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/RN-ten-Doeschate-c2338, who hit a marvellous unbeaten 70 after the Kolkata side was four down at 20.
In response, the two http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sachin-Ramesh-Tendulkar-c87800, made things easier for their side by putting together a classy 81-run partnership for the first wicket.
Although, the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Knight-c71599 Riders came back hard on the home side and picked up five wickets in quick succession, Franklin stopped them from doing any further damage and led his side to a convincing triumph by smashing an unbeaten 29 runs in the elimination final
on Wednesday, May 25, 2011.
Franklin batted responsibly when wickets were going down at the other end, and the flamboyant all-rounder revealed that he simply played the role that was assigned to him.
"It's not sunk in yet. I am relieved. Unfortunately, we lost a few wickets in the middle. Harbhajan came out and hit that four and that six. My role was to stay till the end," Franklin said.
Meanwhile, the Kiwi batsman conceded that that the team should have finished the affair far earlier, because taking it till the last over brought them under undue pressure.
"We are leaving it too late at the moment. If we are trying to seek perfection we probably lost too many wickets in the middle and put too http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gordon-James-Muchall-c60376 pressure on ourselves. Harbhajan came and played a couple of good shots and we crossed the line," added the Kiwi
player who started his international cricket as a specialist bowler but turned into a fine all-rounder over the years.
Although, Franklin predicted a tough clash in the next semi-final game against Royal Challengers Bangalore, he hoped that the Mumbai Indians http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Adam-Griffith-c919 final.
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