IPL 7: Gautam Gambhir upbeat after team’s all-round show

“A quality batter like Kallis knows when to accelerate and if either me or him stays till the 15th over we’ll get a good score. We have Morne’s (Morkel) pace and Narine and (Piyush) Chawla in the spin department and Vinay’s (Kumar) is pretty good at the death as well,” he added.

Man of the Match Kallis, who has retired from Test cricket, said it was nice to come back after a break.
“Had a good few months off. It’s nice to catch up with friends and family, but I worked hard on my cricket to help Kolkata this season. There was more bounce this season which suited. Kept the good balls out at the start and cashed it in the death,” Kallis said.

The South African veteran was full of praise for Morkel and Narine.

“Morne started great at the start with the ball and Narine was brilliant as well. I probably haven’t got too many years left and I’m just looking forward to having some fun in the middle.”

Though the first phase of the tournament has moved out of India, a large crowd trooped in to cheer the two teams. Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma said there was a lot to learn from this defeat. “It’s disappointing, first game of the season. Lots to learn from this game. We will take the positives from this game, although there weren’t many.”