Shahrukh khan:winning and losing are part of Cricktet

Bollywood superstar and Kolkata Knight Riders’ owner, Shah Rukh Khan, who is keen to see his men stride away with the title in the Indian Premier League (IPL), understands that victory and defeat are part of the game.  He cited his passion for cricket as the reason for his participation in the sport.
“I've been saying this all the time that I am a sportsperson by nature and I'm here because I love the game. Winning and losing are part of it. Team wise, maybe earlier we had made a few mistakes and so we thought of areas to correct ourselves,” he maintains.
The Kolkata men are scheduled to lock horns with the Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 22, 2011, at their home ground of Eden Gardens. Khan is delighted that the team players are gelling well together and is certain that their perfect coordination will prove beneficial for their game.
Answering a question regarding Sourav Ganguly’s exclusion from the squad, he said that the team needed to go through the transition. He added that the matter needlessly turned into a controversy because the message did not effectively reach across to the people of Kolkata.
“It was unfortunate that we couldn't retain Dada but we had to go through a change and try and do something new and different. But Dada was always going to be part of our plans. We want him around to be there and guide the new team,” claimed the franchise owner.
The presence of the high-profile movie star brings the Kolkata Knight Riders in the limelight and puts stress on the owner. However, Khan refused to be stressed and vowed to give his best performance on all fronts. He offered empathy to his team, saying that the players sometimes take too much burden upon themselves.
The Kolkata roster has cruised to the high rankings of the IPL hierarchy this season. However, they tasted their second defeat of the IPL season when the Kochi Tuskers Kerala rose to a 6-run victory against them at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Wednesday, April 20, 2011.
King Khan’s side has been earning their victories mainly due to the performance of a few stars in the top order. All-rounder Jacques Kallis plundered three half centuries in the starting fixtures of the tournament. Gautam Gambhir has stood not out and sealed wins against the Rajasthan Royals with his dazzling strokes. Manjor Tiwari also exposed his sturdy side in the recent encounter against Kerala, when he scored a tally of 46 off 51 balls.
On the other hand, the Royal Challengers, who seemed to have swapped fortunes with the Kolkata side, are on a losing spree this season, as suggested by their consecutive defeats against the Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers and Chennai Super Kings.
The luminary King Khan has taken a break from his busy Bollywood schedule in order to fully enjoy the IPL tournament.

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Yusuf Pathan’s injury mild in nature says Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper, has confirmed that an injury picked up by Yusuf Pathan in an Indian Premier League (IPL) fixture is not serious and the off-spinner will feature in upcoming matches for KKR.

Gambhir was speaking to media after their match against the Kochi Kerala Tuskers (KKT). The left-handed batsman said, “Nothing serious with Yusuf's injury, he should be OK for the next game.”
Yusuf was injured while fielding in the Twenty20 match. He looked like he was in pain soon after taking Ravindra Jadeja’s catch at the long-on boundary. The attacking middle order batsman seemed to settle nicely under the ball as he took the catch.
The all-rounder did not stay and was substituted soon after. Later, during KKR’s innings when he came out to bat, he had a runner with him and had a short stint with the bat and failed to guide his team to victory.
Requiring a total of 132, KKR could only manage 126 and lost the match by six runs. Gautham was infuriated with his team’s performance. The left-hander believes his side should have won the match with little effort.
In post match interview he said, “We should have chased that target easily. The wicket was playing better than it did in the last game. Credit to Kochi. The way their bowlers bowled. We were disappointing, not up to the mark.”
Earlier in the match, KKR won the toss and choose to field. The Kochi Kerala Tuskers openers went berserk in the powerplay and made full use of fielding restrictions as they scored 45 runs without the loss of any wicket.

Things changed once spin was introduced and Shakib Al Hasan was able to break the partnership as he dislodged Brendon McCullum. Pathan showed Mahela Jayawardene his way back to pavilion and he picked up two more wickets from his next couple of overs.

The all-rounder finished his spell with three wickets and conceded 20 runs in the process. Apart from Jayawardene, Parthiv Patel and Brad Hodge were two more scalps to his name.

KKR lost reliable batsmen, Jacques Kallis and Gambhir, early on in their innings. This caused some panic in the line-up but some stability was brought by the fourth wicket stand between Eoin Morgan and Manoj Tiwary. Once their partnership was broken, thanks to some excellent fielding by Jayawardene, no one else put up a fight.

Kochi Kerala skipper, Jayawardene, acknowledged his bowlers efforts and said he always had belief in his bowler’s ability to bowl in the death overs. He concludes that taking early wickets was the key to their success and this made a modest total look impossible to achieve.

Jayawardene advised his batsmen to improve in upcoming matches as he thinks that they were about 15 runs short of what they should have scored.

The Kerala Tuskers are new to the Indian Premier League and have already started to give the big guns a run for their money. Apart from defeating KKR, they have also emerged victorious against the Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.

Despite the loss, KKR are still toping the group with six points and will face the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Kerala Tuskers, on the other hand, have jumped up to take the third spot after the win.

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Gambhir takes defeat to Kochi as an eye-opener for batsmen

Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain Gautam Gambhir has said that the KKR’s narrow six-run defeat to Kochi Tuskers Kerala will prove to be an eye-opener for the middle-order batsmen, who are yet to show their magic in the Indian Premier League.

Kochi Tuskers thrashed the leading season IV side, Kolkata Knight Riders, on Wednesday. Chasing Kerala’s modest total of 132 runs, Gambhir and company could only manage to reach 126 for nine in 20 overs.

Manoj Tiwary, with his 46 runs, was the only batsman who showed some resistance against the Kochi bowlers. However, he could not take the side home single-handedly. All top Kolkata batsmen including Gambhir, Jacques Kallis, Shakib Al Hasan and Yusuf Pathan were not able to reach even in the double figures.

Describing the poor middle-order batting as the biggest cause of team's humiliating defeat at the hands of Mahela Jayawardene-led Kochi outfit, Gambhir said, "It was a complete batting failure. The wicket was much better and we could have chased easily.”

Gambhir expressed that the team got a lot of depth in its batting order. The captain explained that with hard-hitters like Yusuf and Eoin Morgan in the lower order, Kolkata outfit has loads of talent in its line-up. However, the batsmen just need to realize their responsibility.

"Our middle order is not tested yet and I am sure this will serve a good wake up call for them. It`s not going to be one person`s day every day. Someone needs to put his hands up say it`s my day and take the team forward,” the skipper added.

Deploring on his batsmen’s not-so-impressive performance, the captain, however, admired the bowlers for restricting Kochi XI on a small total, especially after their flying start.

The Knight Riders are leading the IPL standings with their three wins out of five games. Considering the defeat as unfortunate, the skipper stated that the team can take a lot of positives out from this loss.

Gambhir made it clear that the side has done extremely well so far in the tournament. The classy left-hand batsman further hoped that the players would take the defeat just as a bad day, and show up with an improved performance in the upcoming games.

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Kallis excited to face Steyn

Jacques Kallis is looking forward to coming up against his countryman Dale Steyn when the Kolkata Knight Riders face the Deccan Chargers on Monday.
Normally lining up aside one another for the Proteas rather than on opposite teams, Kallis admits that facing a "fantastic" bowler like Steyn is always a challenge.
"It would be exciting. Not very often do I get the opportunity to play against Dale Steyn," said the South African.
Having lost out to the Chennai Super Kings on the last ball of their encounter on Friday night, Kallis admitted there were a number of areas in which they could improve heading into the clash with Deccan.
"We can learn a few things from the last game. I think our fielding let us down. It was one of those games that unfortunately got away from us. We lost it rather than Chennai winning it," explained the all-rounder.
"Everybody will take a little time to settle down. It's start of the new IPL. Everybody is getting to know each other. We have some talented youngsters as well."
"Perhaps we think we fell short by a couple of runs because of the inexperience. Hopefully, we have a successful season ahead of us. Deccan Chargers are a good side. Every side is a dangerous side in Twenty20 cricket. You cannot take anyone for granted in T20," he added.

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