Sourav savours important win

By OUR CORRESPONDENT

Hyderabad, May 11: Riding high after an energetic win against Deccan Chargers, Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain Sourav Ganguly said the victory had come at the right time.

"We had been the most affected team in terms of overseas players leaving midway through the tournament. We lost Ricky Ponting, Brad Hodge and Brendon McCullum but our guys put their hands up and performed. Against that background, it was an important win for us," Ganguly said on Sunday.

"And an away win really peps you up than the one at home," he added. Talking about his 91, the left-hander said it felt great to be involved in the game. He took a couple of wickets and held an equal number of catches too. Having done that, he took a dig at the BCCI selectors who had dropped him from the one-day squad. "I was averaging 50 when I was left out of the squad," he replied to a question whether it reignited his hopes of making to the national squad.

The Kolkata captain said the strategy of keeping wickets in hand worked well for his side. "We wanted to save wickets before going for the final push and it came off," he said.

Ganguly said "though the margin of victory was 24, the game was not easy."

He was also happy with the reception he got. "It does make a lot of difference to the boys," he said.

As parting shot, Ganguly said Pakistan pace ace Shoaib Akhtar was improving well and could be fit for the next game, against Delhi Daredevils at home on Tuesday.

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Venue shift unlikely

By OUR CORRESPONDENT

Mumbai, May 11: The buzz over a venue change of the final of the Indian Premier League from the originally-scheduled Wankhede Stadium to the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai seems to be more speculation than fact as no one is ready to confirm the change.

One reason cited is that the Mumbai Indian franchisees will be able to sell more tickets at Nerul. There is also talk that the IMG television production crew is finding it difficult and is not happy with the makeshift arrangements at the Wankhede.

"There is no reason for us to be unhappy as we will be able to sell more tickets for the final. Also, as we said earlier, reports that we as franchisees were having problems and that the players were unwilling to travel so far have been proven wrong," said a franchisee spokesperson.

IPL CEO Sundar Raman said: "You can talk to the franchise owners about it. We haven’t given any final verdict over it."