KKR players all praise for felicitation ceremony – Cricket News Update
Indian Premier League 2012 champions, Kolkata Knight Riders, were all praise for the felicitation ceremony organised in their honor by the West Bengal government.
“The felicitation was really nice… Very touching, I’d say,” said skipper Gambhir, who took the side to the title in the second year of his association with the franchise.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Manvinder-Singh-c74304 Bisla, Player of the Match from the final, compared the celebrations to those following a World Cup victory. “The entire affair was awesome… It was as if we’d won the World Cup,” he said.
The Knight Riders had been among the less prominent franchises in the tournament, having failed to rise above the fourth spot on the points table since the inception of the IPL in 2008. However, the team came into the 2012 edition of the tournament fighting,
and succeeded in finishing the league stage at number 2 on the points table, having won 10 of the 16 matches they played.
They carried the same competitive spirit into the playoffs, knocking the table-topping http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Delhi-c780 Daredevils out of the tournament with an 18-run win in the first qualifier. The ultimate victory came at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk, Chennai, when the
Gautam Gambhir-led side secured a 5-wicket victory over defending champions Chennai Super Kings, lifting their maiden IPL title on May 27.
Celebrations erupted in Kolkata following the long-awaited victory, and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced a felicitation ceremony in their honour. The team was led through the city atop a trailer vehicle, accompanied by a parade and crowds
of close to 50,000. The team stopped at the Writers' Buildings, where they were formally congratulated by the CM, and moved on to the Eden Gardens stadium for the celebrations.
Players were awarded golden lockets by Banerjee and governor M K Narayanan, and similar gifts were presented by the Cricket Association of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bengal-c771. While the affair has been dubbed extravagant and unnecessary by a number of critics, KKR players expressed
their pleasure at having had such an event organised in their honour.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lakshmipathy-Balaji-c72130, who had been unable to play in the final, and to whom the team had dedicated the win, referred to the event as “mind-blowing”.
“… I didn’t expect such a gesture and such a response from the Calcuttans, that too in this heat,” he claimed.
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