Kevin always gave us hope: Mumbai captain
We made silly errors at crucial times, laments Madras captain.
The Mumbai University camp went delirious with joy after opening batsman Kevin D'Almeida clinched a thrilling last-ball win for the home team in a must-win clash against Madras University at the Brabourne Stadium on Monday night.
Mumbai could not thank D'Almeida enough. The lanky left-hander played the knock of his life as his 51-ball 65 not out helped Mumbai stay In hunt for a semifinal berth in the Toyota University Cricket Championship. Not to forget, D'Almeida also brought off a stunning catch at covers ending Govindaraj Damodharan's breezy 23 off 20 balls that was turning out to be a crucial one for Madras.
"We really threw away some wickets and brought the pressure on us. But we always had hope of clinching this must-win game as long as Kevin was around," said Mumbai skipper Pankaj Jaiswal.
On Sunday, Mumbai were without their star batsman and first-choice skipper Siddhesh Lad, but Jaiswal was playing a good role with the bat (30 off 22 balls) until he went for a big hit and lost his wicket. "It was unnecessary because we were playing a very important game. Am happy that Kevin batted sensibly," Jaiswal said.
Still with a mathematical chance of making the semis, Madras captain Avaikkarasan Sekar admitted his team made some silly errors under pressure.
"A few misfields and an easy run-out chance spoilt our chance in a tense game," he said. Sekar got two wickets for 25 runs with his leg-spins but seamer Kiran Kashyap gave too much width in the last over as Mumbai edged closer to victory.