Gambhir asked us to show some intent, pride: Woakes

kolkata — Skipper Gautam Gambhir wanted his bowlers to show “intent and pride” which Chris Woakes feels went a long way in Kolkata Knight Riders dismissing RCB for 49 — the lowest ever total in history of Indian Premier League.

“The captain asked us to show some intent and some pride.

“The opening bowlers set the tone for us. From there on, it was just trying to put the ball in the right areas,” the 28-year-old Woakes said after the match.

In an exceptional display of pace bowling up front, Nathan Coulter Nile (3-0-21-3) and Umesh Yadav (3-0-15-1) ripped apart the vaunted RCB top-order in Powerplay, before Woakes (2-0-6-3) and Colin de Grandhomme (1.4-0-4-3) sealed the issue.

Woakes said the strategy was to

3

Wickets, Chris Woakes bagged and conceded six

runs from two overs

hit the top of the off-stump.

“Coulter-Nile and Umesh got to swing the ball up front.

“When I came on, it did not swing but a little bit of movement off the length. If you hit the areas, more often than not it puts the batsmen under pressure especially when wickets are falling around,” Woakes said.

Woakes termed the Eden Gardens strip as a nice one.

“The wicket was nice to bowl on. At the Eden Gardens, if you are off the area, you get punished because the outfield is quick. It actually is a good batting surface. As we have seen in previous games, 180 is par which is a good T20 score. But we bowled quite well on that pitch,” he said.

He admitted that at the break, it wasn’t like the team was supremely confident.

“I think I would be lying to say that we came at the half time saying that we would definitely win the game. Not often you defend 130 particularly here at Eden Gardens,” Woakes said.

None of RCB’s batters could reach a double digit as their respective runs resembled a mobile number — 70189820250 — to succumb to 10th overall lowest in T20s. KKR’s defence of 131 (or under) was also only the 10th time in IPL history.