Cocktail of skill, nerve and luck saw us through

We couldn't have scripted a better ending to our league campaign. Coming out of three consecutive defeats, it was important to have a win in our kitty. Twenty one runs in the last over is never an easy equation, but James Franklin and Ambati Rayudu saw us through.

Not the ideal spot
Ideally, we would have loved to finish in the top-two. We started on a great note and were going fine. But somehow, we faltered and lost the momentum.

It was a good batting wicket at the Eden and it stayed true till the end. We would have loved to restrict the Knight Riders around 150, but Jacques Kallis, Yusuf Pathan and Manoj Tiwary took them to a formidable total.

We believed if we batted sensibly, we could chase well, although getting it in less than 15 overs was an arduous task. After the departure of T Suman, I was promoted in the line-up. Sachin Tendulkar and I had planned to get at least one boundary per over and take singles to keep the run rate under check.

We were doing fine until Rajat Bhatia bowled some well-disguised mixture of leg cutters and slower ones. Our chase got derailed and it became a little too tight.

Cool head
Franklin never lost his cool and didn't allow the enormity of the situation to bother him. Then we had that dream last over.

We are in a quarterfinal-like situation where we have to win two games in a row to make it to the final. This win will boost our morale before the all-important qualifier.

PMG