Rajshahi Kings captain Darren Sammy expressed jubilation following their Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 2016-17 season Qualifier 2 victory against Khulna Titans in Mirpur's Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Wednesday and credit team spirit for their inspiring performance.
“We have achieved what we wanted at the start of the tournament. To get to the playoffs and make it through to the final. And for that, the guys played very well. It's not a one-man show. People said we don’t have stars in our team but I always see as a team of stars, and we have played truly like kings,” Sammy told the media in the post-match press conference.
“At one point of time we were down and out but we believed that we would turn things around. And we have done that. I am really excited and proud of the way we played,” he said.
The dejected Khulna skipper Mahmudullah ponders what might have been
DHAKA TRIBUNEIn contrast, Khulna skipper Mahmudullah blamed their batsmen for yet another disappointing display. Batting first, Khulna managed only 125/9 which Rajshahi chased down comfortable in the end with four balls and seven wickets in hand.
“It was frustrating because the batsmen weren’t able to take the responsibility. The bowlers, how long will they defend such low totals and win games? But I still feel proud with my team, the kind of team we had, from that aspect we played good cricket. If we had batted better, it could have been better but unfortunately that didn’t happen,” said Mahmudullah.
“I don’t want to name anyone because as I said earlier in the first team meeting, our spirit will be the main thing. If that is good and everyone keeps that belief in themselves, then we can do something good. Our bowling department was good while in the batting department, one or two players clicked. This was the biggest batting problem. Throughout this tournament, batting was a let down. We tried to work it out but in the end, it didn’t end well for some reason or the other,” he added.