Knights success not a surprise - Sodhi

While most of the attention in the Champions League T20 has been on the IPL franchises, Northern Knights have emerged as the team to beat after dominant performances in the qualifiers and a comprehensive victory in their first group game. The results may have surprised a few people but Ish Sodhi, the Knights legspinner, insisted they were the outcome of the team's intense preparations in the run-up to the tournament.

"We haven't surprised ourselves at all. We have been preparing hard for this tournament for a long time," Sodhi told ESPNcricinfo. "Most of our players had been busy playing some tournament or the other before we came here. And then we had an intense weeklong preparatory camp in Bangalore, which helped us get the best combination going. All sorts of combinations that we have tried have worked for us."

After thumping their opponents, including defending champions Mumbai Indians, in the qualifiers, Knights carried the form into the group stage and beat Cape Cobras in their first match. The core players - Kane Williamson, Scott Styris, Trent Boult and Tim Southee - have made crucial contributions, while others like Anton Devcich have supported their efforts well. Williamson has been the standout performer for the team, with 220 runs in four games, including a century [the fastest in CLT20] and two fifties and Sodhi said Williamson's 49-ball 101 against Cobras was a "wonderful knock, especially with all the clinical strokes he played all over the ground".

If Northern Districts sign off their prolonged stay in Raipur with a fifth consecutive victory, against Hobart Hurricanes, they will boost their chances of making it to the knock-outs. Since 2011, when the qualifying stage was introduced to the Champions League T20, no team starting in the qualifiers has won the tournament. Sodhi said Knights were not too worried about that trend.

"It's too early to think about it. All that we are thinking is to keep delivering the way we have been and the results will follow," he said. "We have a protocol of not thinking too much about the future."

In the last year, Sodhi has played eight Tests and two T20Is for New Zealand but has not yet cemented his place in the team and his bowling average of 47 in first-class cricket and 46 in Tests has come under scrutiny. The India-born spinner, however, said he was not bothered too much by criticism against him.

"I think criticism is always going to be there. It's not been that difficult to deal with and I don't start to lose my sleep over it," Sodhi said. "Hopefully I can continue and keep doing the things that I am and improve my stats. What matters more is what my team-mates think in the nets, more than anything else. That [criticism] doesn't really bother me."

Sodhi admitted he is still a long way from becoming a "finished product" as a bowler and cricketer and hoped he could accomplish that goal over the next few years.

"Being a part of three Test series victories, winning the Twenty20 competition with my domestic team and now being here for the Champions League has surely helped me start understanding my game a little bit better each day," he said. "I am looking forward to keep improving and I hope I can be a finished product as a bowler and as a cricketer. It will not come for another few years."