Basil ThampiKolkata: Uncapped Kerala pacer Basil Thampi made the difference by consistently bowling yorkers at the death, Gujarat Lions assistant coach Sitanshu Kotak said a day after his team's comfortable win in the IPL here.
Gujarat Lions cruised to a four-wicket win over hosts Kolkata Knight Riders last night.
"It was a must-win game for us and the key was to bowl yorkers at the death. We had no choice but to win this. On this wicket, we knew that he (Thampi) can bowl a yorker in each delivery, and he tried some slower ones too," Kotak said at the post-match press conference.
"(Suresh) Raina also did a fantastic job giving away just 11 runs from his two overs and taking a wicket (Sunil Narine)."
From 96 for one at the midway stage following Narine's career-best 42 from 17 balls, KKR could score only 46 runs from the last five overs, losing the key wickets of Robin Uthappa (72), Manish Pandey (24) and Suryakumar Yadav (1).
"It's a fantastic feeling. We did not do well in the last couple of games and needed a good win to bring our campaign back on track."
Having trapped Chris Gayle for his maiden IPL wicket, the in-form Pandey became the Kerala speedster's second victim.
"I got my yorkers from tennis ball cricket. I came here before the tournament, we had good practice sessions. I worked with my coaches and they gave good confidence to me, as well as my captain. I didn't have any (real) pressure to execute, that's the big thing." the 23-year-old said.
"It's a fantastic feeling because the last couple of games, we didn't do well. In fact we did well but on the matter of day, we didn't execute it (our plans) well. We needed one good win, we got it today, so we are very happy to be there." the youngster said.
