It was an amazing feeling to be at the Eden on Saturday. The Eden is the best cricket ground in the world where the knowledgeable crowd gives you due recognition, and it lived up to its reputation once more. No wonder, cricketers the world over crave to play here at least once.
What was
more enthralling, was the competitive cricket both sides showed. KKR were off to a flier with Gautam and Brendon, but we pulled it back. The bowlers settled to a nice line and length to contain the batsmen after they looked like getting away to a huge total.
The target was gettable even on the slow Eden wicket but we lost too many wickets and were left short by seven runs. Sunil Narine impressed the most. He has emerged as the new 'mystery' bowler in the international circuit like Ajantha Mendis did a few years back. But he has better control and gets more bounce than Mendis.
Coming back to cricket, our margin of defeat in the last three games has been 13, 1 and 7. It shows that our effort to finish it off has not been enough, even though we created opportunities.
We have tried to overcome the factor by deploying various means but without success, and now in the last four games we should just play fearless cricket. With the expectation of making it to the play-offs having subsided, I would say, let's play for some pride, boys.
360 Corporate Relations
The writer is Pune Warriors captain