Gautam’s the finest captain: SRK

 After four years of disappointments, Kolkata Knight Riders’ co-owner Shah Rukh Khan finally tasted the sweet taste of victory. His team clinched the title against the Chennai Super Kings under thrilling circumstances and ensured that the franchise’s trophy cabinet got a noteworthy centrepiece. The Bollywood icon was at his motivating best in the stands; and once Manoj Tiwary hit the winning runs, there was delirium in the KKR camp. The joy of winning the IPL is unparalleled and King Khan experienced the feeling that he’d been craving for a while. 

During a brief chat after the match, SRK revealed to iplt20.com that he considers Gautam Gambhir the best captain in the world.

Excerpts:

How does it feel to be the owner of the IPL champions?
I don’t feel like the owner. We were the promoters who started this team and I always wanted our city, Kolkata, to feel that they are the owners and we are the employees of the city. I am really sorry to say that Juhi [Chawla], Joy [Bhattacharya], Gauri [Khan] and I end up being the owners of KKR. From tonight, KKR is owned by Kolkata. So, please look after it and give it a lot of love because we have nurtured it with a lot of care and happiness.

What were you going through in the end stages?

I prayed to Allah and all the farishteys of Allah. I said, “Please make this happen as it’s been a long time.” I understand that it’s a sport, but I need to do this for my children and all the people who love me and for all of them who believed in KKR. We have had some good times, some bad times and controversies; we have been able to rise above all that. We had to prove it to the world and to us actually and to our children mainly, my son Aryan, my daughter Suhana, Jhanvi and Arjun. If you are resilient and if you believe and if you have a dream, it will come true.

Your faith in youngsters has finally borne fruit through Manvinder Bisla

The team is completely run by Gautam and Trevor [Bayliss]. These guys know cricket, and we guys come and pray and give them a lot of love. I don’t know much about cricket, so we just go by the decisions they make. We have never participated in the cricket part of it, be it in a positive or a negative way. Gautam runs the cricket and we just hope that the youngsters do well.

Is Gautam Gabmhir the perfect captain for KKR?

I am not questioning any of the captains in the IPL, I love [MS] Dhoni, Harbhajan [Singh] and Sachin [Tendulkar], and they all are friends and they love me. But as I have seen Gautam so up close and I have been in a profession which requires quick decisions and toughness, I really do believe that Gautam is the finest captain I have seen in recent times.

Watch CSK vs KKR Live Streaming DLF IPL5 Final 2012

Indian Premier League, Final: Chennai Super Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders at Chennai, May 27, 2012

Sun May 27
14:30 GMT | 20:00 local
20:00 IST Final – Chennai Super Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders
MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai

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  CSK vs KKR IPL FINAL 2012 Match Stats:

They are here, again. Those resilient, stubborn Chennai Super Kings. In another IPL final, their fourth in five seasons and their third in a row, pursuing a hat trick of titles. Love them, hate them or couldn’t care less about them, you have to give it to them – the Super Kings got game. They know when and how to turn it on, too, though this season they dangled off the edge of the precipice, holding on with their pinkies, for longer than was comfortable.

Kolkata Knight Riders did not leave their chances hinging on an improbable combination of results over which they had no control. They reached the playoffs with a game to spare and made short work of Delhi Daredevils to enter their maiden IPL final. Their performances have been efficient and consistent and they should logically be favourites tomorrow. But they’re facing a resurgent side on its home turf.

Super Kings are blessed with loyal fans and the pricklier among them bristle at insinuations that fortune played a role in their team making it to Chennai on Sunday. They got enough points, didn’t they? And they didn’t design the schedule, so they had to hope three results went their way to make the playoffs. And Kings XI Punjab just weren’t good enough to beat Delhi Daredevils, and Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore weren’t good enough to beat bottom-placed Deccan Chargers. What’s luck got to do with it?

That Super Kings had to wait five days to know they would be able to defend their title was because of an out-of-sorts start to the season. At times they, the IPL’s least changed side over five seasons, looked passé compared to some of the other teams, who had strengthened squads with new personnel. Super Kings’ turnaround only began after ten league games, of which they had won four. They won four of their last six matches, so their form, when they entered familiar playoff territory, was satisfactory.

And then they were near perfect. After clambering on to level ground, Super Kings’ misfiring batting line-up, the longest in the IPL, found its guns and annihilated Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils with breath-taking confidence.

While Super Kings had abundant success in seasons past, Knight Riders had nothing. In the first three years, they were the only team without a top-four finish. So in 2011, Knight Riders abandoned failed strategies, completely overhauled their squad, and climbed to fourth in the league, but lost the eliminator. In 2012, they have gone farther, converting their second-place finish in the league into a berth in the finals by beating Daredevils in the first qualifier.

Knight Riders also had an iffy start to the season, losing three of their first five games. Since then they’ve lost only two out of 11, acquiring the rarest quality in Twenty20 cricket – consistency. There were no dramas in their progress to the playoffs. Their success has been built around two people with supporting contributions from the rest. The captain Gautam Gambhir has been a reliable run-scorer, while the spinner Sunil Narine has confounded all and sundry with his unreadable variations.

If they perform like they have this season, Knight Riders have little reason to worry. Whether they can perform in their first final, against opponents seasoned to such pressure, is the question.

Chennai Super Kings Squad

MS Dhoni*†, S Anirudha, R Ashwin, S Badrinath, GJ Bailey, DE Bollinger, DJ Bravo, F du Plessis, BW Hilfenhaus, MEK Hussey, RA Jadeja, SB Jakati, Joginder Sharma, S Randiv, KMDN Kulasekara, VY Mahesh, JA Morkel, A Mukund, SK Raina, WP Saha†, SB Styris, S Tyagi, K Vasudevadas, G Vignesh, M Vijay

Kolkata Knight Riders Squad

G Gambhir*, S Ladda, L Balaji, R Bhatia, MS Bisla, DB Das, M de Lange, BJ Haddin†, Iqbal Abdulla, CS Jani, JH Kallis, B Lee, BB McCullum†, EJG Morgan, SP Narine, YK Pathan, JL Pattinson, SV Samson, PJ Sangwan, I Saxena, Shami Ahmed, Shakib Al Hasan, LR Shukla, RN ten Doeschate, MK Tiwary, JD Unadkat.