'Dot ball and wicket in last over boosted my confidence'

Dubai - Razzaq took a wicket in the over and kept the Sagittarius Strikers down to 143 and help the Commanders win the game by a narrow three runs.

Abdul Razzaq revealed that the dot ball and a wicket in the last over boosted his confidence to finish the job and give Capricorn Commanders their first win in the Masters Champions League.
The former Pakistan all-rounder, one of the most experienced bowlers in the death overs, came on to bowl the final over the match.
And with nine required, Razzaq took a wicket in the over and kept the Sagittarius Strikers down to 143 and help the Commanders win the game by a narrow three runs.
"It was a splendid feeling and once again I did it for my team. It does not matter if I'm playing for Pakistan or Capricorn or any other team.  I'm really glad to have done it for my team and we won the match," said Razzaq.
"There was no pressure and I was confident that I could defend these nine runs because I was thinking when the 19th over was going on that if eight or seven runs were left, I thought I might come on to bowl. So, it was really good that I got nine runs to play with and I was pleased especially with the first two balls, where I got a dot and a wicket. And I got more confidence from that and I knew that we could win the match," he revealed.
The Capricorn Commanders had gone down to the Leo Lions in their opening game and found themselves in a spot of bother at 71 for 3. But Razzaq came up with a crucial 39.
"We struggled in the first game, especially in the batting and that's why we were a little bit under pressure when we went in. So, I thought I should stay as long as possible and stay for a couple of overs and then go for boundaries. Thank God I was successful and I did it for the team and it's a good feeling for me,"  Razzaq said.
Meanwhile, Sagittarius Strikers captain Adam Gilchrist felt that his dismissal allowed the Capricorn Commanders to come back into the game. Gilchrist had struck 57 before he was stumped by Geraint Jones off Jeetan Patel. Patel had also removed Jonathan Trott in the same over.
"I think me getting out opened the door for the opposition and they took their opportunities. I felt like we were really in control of it but fair play to Jeetan Patel who got those wickets in that over. He bowled a nice delivery to me and I probably just needed to survive one ball and it felt like we were in control. But then, that's the beauty of T20," said Gilchrist.
Gilchrist said that they will have post mortem on what went wrong and correct them before the next round of fixtures in Sharjah.
"We have got a few days off now before the next game in Sharjah. So, we will have a little think about what we did wrong. I thought we did a lot of things really well today but we probably just leaked a couple of bad overs towards the end of the bowling innings. And we as batsmen, myself included, just needed to close it out. So, we will have a think about that and enjoy a couple of days off probably," said the Australian.
james@khaleejtimes.com

• Masters Champions League