Dubai: Swashbuckling batsman Chris Gayle, who won the match for Kings XI Punjab against Mumbai Indians, has revealed that he wasn’t nervous “angry and upset” before going out to bat in the second Super Over.
In the first game on Sunday, the KKR-SRH match in Abu Dhabi was decided through a Super Over which kept viewers on the edge of their seats. However, the excitement got even bigger when the second match of the day between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab also reached a similar fate in Dubai.
Batting first, MI posted 176/6 and KXIP ended up making the same score, losing the same number of wickets in 20 overs. In the first Super Over, both teams scored five runs, thus forcing another Super Over which was eventually won by Kings XI.
“No I wasn’t nervous. I was a bit more angry and upset that we got ourselves in this position,” Gayle told Mayank Agarwal in a video uploaded on IPLT20.com. “But it’s a game of cricket and these things do happen,” he added.
Behind the tied first Super Over was Mohammed Shami, who conceded only 5 runs. His brilliance forced a second Super Over, which the KL Rahul-led side won gaining valuable two points.
“Shami is the man of the match for me,” Gayle said. “To defend six runs against Rohit and de Kock, that’s fantastic. That’s a great job. I have faced you in the nets and I know that you can nail those yorkers, and nail them well. Today he came and delivered and brought it home for us,” he added.
Shami, who has 14 wickets to his name in the tournament so far, revealed how he was able to deliver yorker after yorker in such a tense situation.
“It was very difficult,” Shami said. “When you get 15-17 runs to defend in the Super Over, it’s a different matter altogether. You believe at the back of your mind that you can do it. But when the margin of error is so less, you focus on what you can do best. I believe a lot in myself. When I was going back on the top of my mark every ball, I was saying to myself, ‘This last ball was great. The next ball will be great too’. I repeated that six times,” he added.
Agarwal, who alongside Gayle, won the match for King XI in the second Super Over, also revealed about his state of mind when he came out to bat. “The game against Delhi Capitals came to my mind (which Kings XI lost). However, Gayle told me ‘Mayank, just watch the ball and the rest will be fine’.”
“And that was all that I had in my mind that I have to watch the ball and hit it. I didn’t think about taking ones and twos. I was determined to hit a boundary and luckily it did happen,” he added.
With six points from nine games, Kings XI are currently placed at the sixth spot and will next take on Delhi Capitals on Tuesday.
