Dubai. Karachi Kings skipper Kumar Sangakkara, who had inspired his team to fight back from a poor start in this tournament, is disappointed that his team could not reach the final. He attributed his team’s defeat to Peshawar Zalmi in the third and final play-off at the Dubai International Stadium on Friday night to a bad start to the chase.
“It was a gettable score, we needed a good start. We needed at least 40 to 50 runs in that first six overs which we did not get and they put lot of pressure on us because 12 an over for 14 overs was tough even with Chris (Gayle) and Polly (Kieron Pollard) there. We gave it a good go but fell a few runs short at the end. I thought we were outplayed by a very good side,” said Sangakkara, who went on to laud Peshawar opener Kamran Akmal’s century knock.
“Kamran batted outstandingly well. I thought at the half way stage limiting them to 180 was an outstanding effort. Kamran batted well and put a lot of pressure on us. Polly tried his best for us, but we did not have enough partnerships. There was not enough grip in this pitch for the spinners,” he added.
Sangakkara justified his decision to put Peshawar into bat. “All the sides right throughout after winning the toss have chased. We too did the same. There was not enough dew probably at the end as the ground staff did an outstanding job but that is the way it goes. If we would have limited them to 160 it would have been a completely different game.”
Sangakkara is equally happy over his team’s fight back after a poor start to reach the play-off and be at reachable distance from the final. “It was great to fight back with a series of wins to get here. We were hanging on by the skin of our cheek. Unfortunately, sometimes in T20, you have a good run but then you have an off day and unfortunately it was this today.”
Peshawar skipper Darren Sammy too hailed the effort from Gayle and Pollard. “Having asked to bat first, I thought Kamran played an amazing innings. Polly and Gayle started the revival for them but Wahab (Riaz) and Hasan Ali showed the quality. At the end of the day we held our nerve and won it.”
Sangakkara is confident that his team will come back stronger next year. “We have been outstanding, coming back from almost being out of the tournament. We will come back hard next year. All the best to the players playing in Lahore,” he said before rushing to take the early morning flight.
