Welcome to - Home Of CriCket

Praveen's first over set the match up: Kumble

Royal Challengers captain Anil Kumble said Praveen Kumar and Jacques Kallis' fantastic spell with the new ball helped the team outplayed Delhi Daredevils by seven wickets in the DLF Indian Premier League at thhe Wanderers on Tuesday.

"Praveen and Kallis set the match up for us," he said after notching up the win. "Two wickets in the first over gave us an edge. Later, Kallis bowled and batted superbly while Rahul Dravid gave him good company. It was an important match for us and someone had to bat through the innings and Kallis was the man today,"

The Royal Challengers skipper said the team knew what exactly it had to do to make it to the last four. "We are very much in the tournament. We need to win our next match for the semi-final berth. We know what to do and we are taking one game at a time. We are not looking at the point's table," he said. 

Man-of-the-match Jacques Kallis said there was need for experienced guys to come up with good scores in big games and today was his day. "I am happy that I did well with bat and ball and my team won an important game. The pitch was a little bit slow and chasing 150-155 could have been difficult. But my partnership with Rahul was important. I think the guys have settled with their position in the team now and giving off their best."

Dravid, too, was in all praise for Praveen and Kallis and said that their bowling gave them an edge. "The bowlers did a good job to restrict Delhi Daredevils to 134. Three wickets in the first six overs put Delhi Daredevils on back foot. Now every game is important. We played really well today," he said.

Delhi Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag didn't look perturbed by the loss and said that his boys were a bit relaxed today. "Since we have reached the semis, the boys seemed to be a bit relaxed. But we won't take it lightly our next game from. We will come back strong in our next game. The fall of early wickets made things hard for us," he said. 

Sehwag also said he wasn't worried about his own form. "I am not at all worried about my form. I know I am not very far from scoring. But yes Gautam Gambhir and I will have to do well in the coming matches," he said.