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The 164-run target set by Kolkata Knight Riders was a challenging one but if not for quick wickets early on and towards the end of the innings we could have chased down the score, a disappointed Deccan Chargers captain Kumar Sangakkara said in Kolkata on Monday.
Chasing Knight Riders 163 for four, Deccan lost wickets at heap in the beginning and towards the fag end of their innings to eventually fell short by just nine runs.
"I thought 163 was a good total on this wicket. We still got the rate back on track after some early wickets, but kept losing too many wickets," said the Sri Lankan wicket-keeper batsman after Deccan slumped to its second consecutive defeat in the Twenty20 tournament.
Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir too felt that with the track spinning early on, 160-plus score was a defendable one.
"It was spinning a bit in the first innings, so I thought it was a good score on this wicket," Gambhir said after registering Knight Riders first win under his captaincy.
"Always a great feeling to put runs on the board. It's the City of Joy, hopefully we can win many and bring them lot of joy. Lot of credit to the bowlers today," he added.
Man-of-the-match Jacques Kallis (53 off 45), who scored his second fifty of the tournament in as many matches and also chipped in with four catches today, said, "We were steady throughout. It good performance in the end but there are a few areas we still need to improve."
"A couple of international players will come in now, so that should boost us. We have a powerful batting line-up and look to set the platform for the big hitters down the order," he added.