I am in good form, it's about getting a start and converting it into a big one. It's all working out for me in the business end of the tournament. You need to keep playing shots in T20 cricket. The new ball was holding a bit, it got easier to bat on. It was difficult for their spinners to bowl. He (Shankar) was trying to hit too hard, I told him to hold his shape. Once he found the momentum, he can hit long. I know my game, I keep building on it. It's going to be an exciting one, playing against Chennai in Chennai. We have a great bowling attack and hopefully we'll make it to the final for the second time.
The calmness which the boys had was terrific. We wanted to keep the momentum going. We have ticked a lot of boxes. (On Gill) He knows when he plays those cricketing shots, it's a different Shubman Gill. He doesn't give any chance and that gives confidence to the other batter as well. We would have taken 197 at the start, but we didn't bowl well. Special innings from Kohli, but we went too early for the death overs. I can't ask anything better from the boys. Last year, everything went well for us. We were expecting people to challenge us. The boys showed tremendous character.
We have been playing good cricket overall and this chase was really needed for us. Going into the playoffs, chasing close to 200 was really satisfying. I should have finished it. I was set and hitting the ball towards the end, overall it was a wonderful feeling to win the game. It wasn't that easy with the new ball when they bowled the back of a length balls into the pitch, that's the reason why we could not get the ball in the gaps. The way Shubman played was outstanding and he has shown everyone how to bat on different wickets. No reason. I have been practising in the nets and bowling, but with the current rule we have 6 bowlers, only will bowl if it's really needed but I'm practicing in the nets to be ready if that one over is required. We are trying to get closer to the target, not trying to overdo things. Take the game as close as we can, once we get closer to the total and with the firepower we have we can chase any score. Rashid Khan gave us a great example against Mumbai, even though we lost wickets we lost by 20-odd runs. We have been playing good cricket overall, we have been bowling really well, a couple of bowlers leading the charts and Shubman leading the run-scorers and the others chipping in. It's about taking it game by game and it's important to enjoy as we don't get to play in the playoffs every season. To go out there and face CSK in Chennai is going to be really special. It's a wonderful feeling.
Very disappointed. We played a really strong team tonight, an amazing hundred from Shubman. It was really wet in the second innings. It was wet in the first innings as well, but there wasn't a lot of grip in the second innings and also we had to change the ball quite a few times during the second innings. Virat played an unbelievable knock to give us a chance and thought that was a good score, but shubman played incredibly well to take the game away from us. From a batting perspective, the top 4 contributed really well. We missed a few runs from the middle order consistently throughout the season, especially in the back end of the innings, and also in the middle overs perhaps didn't get as many wickets as we would have liked. He (Kohli) played really good cricket throughout the season and as a partnership probably not a single game where we had anything under 40 as an opening combination. We need to improve well on finishing games especially in the back end. Last year DK had a purple patch and was finishing games left, right and centre, but this season it wasn't to be. And if you see the teams that succeed they have some good hitters at five at six probably six and seven.