Ross Taylor had an ordinary IPL 5 season with just 197 runs from 12 matches he played © AFP
By CricketCountry Staff
Chennai: May 26, 2012
Delhi Daredevils batsman Ross Taylor on Friday said, his team would like to move ahead and capitalise on the opportunity to perform better in the Champions League T20 to be hosted later this year rather than look back at a dismal performance in the playoffs. Delhi crashed out of the fifth edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) after losing to Chennai in the second qualifier match on Friday.
“That’s a nice thing about the IPL – even if you don’t win it, if you’ve done well right through the tournament, you still get a chance to play in the CLT20. We have something where we can redeem ourselves, and hopefully, we go one step further and make it to the finals and maybe win it,” said Taylor.
After a successful campaign in the league phase, Delhi failed to recreate the same performance in the playoffs as they went down to Kolkata first, and then against defending champions Chennai Super Kings.
“It is disappointing the way we finished. We started really well and we were confident before getting into the knockout [playoff] phase. But full credit to KKR and CSK, they deserved to be where they are and hopefully, we will be bigger and better for next year,” said a dejected Taylor.
He praised Chennai opener Murali Vijay who exposed Delhi’s young bowling attack and went on to score a match-winning century.
“There are always crucial moments in the games. Murali Vijay batted really well and he exposed our young bowling attack. Young bowlers will learn from this and if we are in a similar situation, we will do better than what we did in the match against Chennai,” said the Kiwi skipper.
Delhi skipper Virender Sehwag was widely criticised after dropping leading wicket-taker Morne Morkel for the crunch game against Chennai. Taylor however defended his skipper saying, the side selected was good enough to win the match but unfortunately things didn’t work out for their team.
Taylor had an ordinary IPL 5 with just 197 runs from 12 matches he played. “I started to hit the ball well towards the end of the tournament and it would have been nice to get some big scores. But in T20, sometimes it is a bit of a hit and miss. I was disappointed in the start of the tournament, but hopefully, I can show what I am about in the CLT20,” Taylor was quoted as saying by the official website of IPL.
