The whole team should contribute

Tillekeratne Dilshan

Mumbai Indians batted extremely well against us, and much of it was thanks to Kieron Pollard, who changed our target from what it was looking at one stage by 20 runs or so. For most part of the innings we had bowled well, but when you are up against a batsman like Pollard, who looked to have got the form going for him, then, there is hardly anything you can do. His 13-ball 45 changed the complexion of the game.

Having said that, we had an excellent start to our innings as well and when the side gets 70 off the first six overs, we would like to back ourselves to chase even a target of more than 180. However, our running between the wickets has been a tad surprising in the last couple of games. Despite humongous target, I would like to believe that had we not lost a couple of wickets to run-outs, we had a very good chance to win the game.

The rise and rise of Somdev Devvarman

In two games now, against Kolkata and Mumbai, we have had some above-par starts to our innings, but for some reason, we have not been able to continue with the momentum. This is the one area of improvement for us for the rest of the games. We cannot always expect the likes of Sehwag and Gambhir to score half centuries all the time, and each one of us in the middle order needs to take the onus to convert our starts into something meaningful. We need somebody to finish the matches for us!

Gautam hit the nail on the head when he said that despite the losses, the one positive to have come out of the results is that now, we have no option but to win the remaining two games. One or two of the players need to go out there, put their hands up and win it for us, with the rest of them playing the role of supporting actors for the side.

We did hear about the ICC chief Haroon Lorgat talk about not allocating a window for the IPL because it is a domestic tournament. While there is no denying that IPL is a domestic tournament, having international fixtures overlapping with the IPL does make it difficult for those players involved in both; especially in terms of player fatigue and exhaustion. So, it would have been really ideal had the tournament been awarded a window from the next season onwards.