Lashing out at his players for their inconsistent show after being knocked out of IPL, Delhi Daredevils skipper Gautam Gambhir on Sunday said they did not play as a team in the entire tournament.
Chasing a modest 146, Delhi lost Sunday's virtual quarter-final to Deccan Chargers by 11 runs and crashed out of the tournament.
The left-handed batsman was peeved with the flop show of the batsmen, particularly the top-order.
"We restricted them to 145. Considering their line up it was good effort. We should have chased it. The pitch was much better. It wasn't bad. We should have batted sensibly, it was pretty much chase-able," Gambhir said at the post-match press conference here.
"Entire team has to take responsibility. We did not play as a team. We should have batted with more responsibility," he added.
Gambhir said his team was never comfortable chasing even a comfortable total, thanks to pathetic top-order show.
"We never chased convincingly in the entire tournament. We were in positions to chase convincingly but we were not consistent. If we lose four out of five matches we do not deserve to be in semi-finals," he said.
Talking about Virender Sehwag's indifferent form, he said, "It's bad patch. We wanted to him to play his natural game but we lost wickets early in the last matches. Not only Sehwag but the entire top-order did not do well. Tried to get the best combination but it didn't click."
Winning captain Adam Gilchrist was all smiles and said even after posting a not so impressive total, they were confident of defending it.
"Definitely (it was defendable). It was a team effort. At the toss I thought 150 would be okay. But when Symonds and Marsh were batting, I thought of 170. They did not do that but I always felt there was a chance (to defend this total)," he said.
Gilchrist was of the view that this season saw the fiercest competition among the teams.
"This (season) has been the most competitive. It's last matches that we are getting to know the semi-finalists which was not the case last season or in the first season. The fortunes have fluctuated," he said.
The Australian said the players in his side were jittery after the bomb blast in Banglore before the RCB-Mumbai Indians match.
"There is always concern when that happens. But we had lot of confidence in the management. We did not get any advisory from Cricket Australia or the government but we did consult our security advisor here," he said.
We did not play as a team: Gambhir
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