Winning toss was important, says Kevin Pietersen

I think batting got a little bit easier towards the end. I think it was a little bit harder in the first innings for us, just those middle overs: Delhi Capitals mentor Kevin Pietersen

HYDERABAD: “We lost the toss, I think we were also going to chase and I think that winning the toss was very important. I think batting got a little bit easier towards the end. I think it was a little bit harder in the first innings for us, just those middle overs,” Delhi Capitals mentor Kevin Pietersen said after the team lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Delhi on Sunday night.

“Shot making I think was very difficult on that wicket. You’ve got to trust that the wicket isn’t as easy to bat on at that particular stage,” he said.

“I always knew that when I was playing franchise cricket that no particular coach could change you over that four to six or eight-week period and I mean even with Abishek, last night I was working on something. I said Abhi, I said this is not going to work for you tomorrow, it might not work for you the next week but if you keep working on it in the next month, two months, three months, four months, I promise you this is going to help,” Pietersen explained.“

“I think a lot of these players are not going to play Test match cricket, so you’re probably looking at it as a view and I do often as well, I look at it and I just think like this is just crazy, some of the shots that you see and and how quickly these guys play the shots, it’s just, it looks like utter madness but that’s the form of the game,” he explained.

“We we’ve got a very, very good bowling lineup, we’ve got an incredibly long batting lineup and I think it depends on the opposition that we’re playing against. Against KKR on Tuesday I’m hoping it’s not the wicket that we got tonight,” Pietersen said.

“I don’t want to talk about money, this competition’s long gone money, in the Premier League people don’t talk about how much money the football is on, so that conversation for me is dead, it’s more about the impact of a player and a team and when the players ready to be selected and if you can make space for them,” he said.