Rajasthan is an ordinary side: Gambhir

[Online]

Delhi Daredevils skipper Gautam Gambhir, who led his team to an emphatic 67-run win over the Rajasthan Royals, rubbed salt into the Royals' wounds by branding them an "ordinary side", with Yusuf Pathan being their only dangerous player. At the post-match presentation, Gambhir said, "I think Rajasthan was never a threat. Except for Yusuf Pathan, the other guys were pretty ordinary. We thought Yusuf was the only danger-man and didn't bother too much about anyone else." Gambhir revealed that in spite of the loss of early wickets - Delhi were 67/4 in the 9th over - he was not unduly worried, since he knew that Delhi had depth in batting and a competitive total was possible. "Anything above 170 was going to be competitive, and our bowlers showed that today. We've got a lot of depth in batting, and we always knew that one big partnership would put us back on track even after losing 3-4 quick wickets. "I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't spend more time in the middle. Once you get back from injury, you are a bit rusty and you want to spend time in the middle, and today was the ideal opportunity for me to do that. "We [the Delhi team] had a bit of a dip, but we're peaking at the right time and hopefully we can continue that way. It's important to just keep playing well rather than concentrating on the points table." Losing skipper Shane Warne rued that fact that his side had not taken advantage of Delhi losing early wickets, but gave credit to the Delhi team and to Man-of-the-Match Dinesh Karthik for their display. "I thought for the first 15 overs or so, we had the game under pretty good control," Warne said. "Credit to Karthik - he played beautifully. We didn't execute our plans, but credit to Delhi for the way they played. "Sometimes when you bowl first and you have 4-5 bad overs towards the end, the opposition gets all the momentum and a bit of a high. Delhi got that and came out and took two wickets in the first over. It happens in Twenty20, but we'll bounce back. That's the way we do it." Asked about Yusuf Pathan's spot in the batting order, Warne revealed that there was indeed some discussion about sending him up the order, even perhaps as an opener. "We talked about sending Yusuf Pathan up the order before the game - maybe even to open the batting. But Lumb and Ojha have done an excellent job with the bat. We also thought about him at Number 3, but then with those quick wickets in the first over, we just wanted to consolidate. We wanted to get a partnership, and then Yusuf could come in after that, but unfortunately it wasn't to be. The next couple of games are crucial and we have to execute our plans in those." Dinesh Karthik, who hit a match-winning 69 off 38 balls, said he was happy to contribute at a time when the team really needed the runs. He said that he and Gambhir had planned to stay at the crease till the 15th over before hitting out. "It was good to get some runs under my belt," Karthik said. "The team really needed them at that point of time, and I'm happy I got them. "When I was batting with Gautam, we were looking at a target of 165-170. Gautam said we should just play through, because it was important that we stayed till the 15th over so that the batters coming in after that could just play freely without worrying about losing their wickets. The ball was stopping a bit and it wasn't easy to play strokes, especially for a new batsman, so it was important to take the onus and make runs once someone was set." Karthik said he enjoyed keeping to the likes of Mishra (who took 3/25), and also enjoyed a healthy banter on the field - which he had with Shane Warne. "It's a pleasure to keep to Mishra, and the way he's bowling is just fantastic. And the new kid on the block, Sarabjit Ladda, is doing very well too. "It's always nice to have a bit of banter, especially with the likes of Warney. He's a legend. It was one of those days when things got going for me, and I enjoyed it."

Sorry if this is a repost Lol Dilli walas sure do speak their mind! and then gets censured Do you guys see anything wrong in what he said? Has he been censured unfairly?

[vvvslaxman]

Yea.. no big deal. But you have to give a bit of respect to Royals who won the inaugural edition of IPL which Delhi hasn't done yet. Considering they lost so many players like Watson, Tanvir, Smith, Kamran, Mascarenhas, Ravindra Jadeja they are doing more than good job with the resources they got.

[flamy]

kya chutpatti censuring and bull

[The Dark Horse]

:hysterical:

[vvvslaxman]

It may very well backfire Gauti in the later stages.

[Gunner_Mania]

This censuring and throwing fines of thousands of dollars for slow overs makes me feel that the IPl is run like a school. The principal always fining students for the slightest mis demeanour or late arrival.

[cowboysfan]

RR are getting back the most in form player in world cricket(after God of course).they will be formidable now.

[yoda]

They would have lost if KKD hadn't played that blinder. Gauti needs to look at himself and worry about his own team first.

[vvvslaxman]

Saying bangladesh side an ordinary side is onething saying a team that did something your team couldn't do is different thing.

[The Dark Horse]

lal he's just hitting back at warne, nothing else.

[veer]

actually sameera reddy and shilpa shetty were complainng about this on their tweeter two days ago so I guess modi got it censured..

[vvvslaxman]

http://twitter.com/TheShilpaShetty

[gaurav92]

Gambhir like Veeru speaks his mind, and i dont think there is anything wrong in that, they are missing the services of Watto, Smithy and Mascarm they are looking very ordinary on paper, they are more than half depended on Yuppo not only in batting, but also in bowling some overs at crucial stages, so to sum they do look ordinary

[gaurav92]

It may very well backfire Gauti in the later stages.

Yes it may just backfire when Dilli dont want it to

[DomainK]

Yeah, the ordinary side won the IPL once. Something Delhi is yet to achieve.

[someone]

Gambhir like Veeru speaks his mind' date=' and i dont think there is anything wrong in that, they are missing the services of Watto, Smithy and Mascarm they are looking very ordinary on paper, they are more than half depended on Yuppo not only in batting, but also in bowling some overs at crucial stages, so to sum they do look ordinary[/quote'] Well the table shows, there is only 2 pts difference. And YP only played well twice so why is an assumption that he has played well in whole tournament and others are doing nothing>? It was Ojha who made 80 remember for an example

[vvvslaxman]

Royals are excellent when it comes to defending totals. Warnie puts lot of pressure.

[mastana]

Royals are not ordinary.

[gaurav92]

Well the table shows, there is only 2 pts difference. And YP only played well twice so why is an assumption that he has played well in whole tournament and others are doing nothing>? It was Ojha who made 80 remember for an example

Read what i wrote once again, i Said On Paper they look ordinary, but they have a magician as their captain, so he will not make them look ordinary by backing them and players will perform to their potential when Warney is around.

[achilles]

Here's my opinion-

It would help if Gautam was a bit less cocky and got on with the game. He should get his ordinary form to the extraordinary levels that he is capable of. And this Royals' curtain down by Gautam is exactly the anecdote the Royals needed. A kick up their butt. Hope they sort their issues and prove the world wrong, just like Lara proved Greg wrong in the humiliating 4-1 drubbing Windies gave us after Greg called West Indies a weak team. For the record, Gautam is right. RR is a super-weak team. But you don't have to be Captain Obvious all the time.