It was difficult to bat on initially, says Gayle

B D Narayankar

Press Trust of India

Bangalore, Oct 3: After guiding Royal Challengers Bangalore to a crushing victory, Chris Gayle revealed that he found it difficult to get going during the initial part of his knock of 86 off 46 balls against Somerset on Monday.

"I am very happy with my performance. It was a key game for us. It wasn't the best of starts, it was a bit difficult to bat on initially. In the end, I got close to 20 overs which was good for me," the big-bodied Jamaican said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

Gayle said that the general discussions were regarding one of the top batsmen trying to bat as many overs as possible.

"No one got a 50 in the first two games. We had a discussion. So whosoever got in this game, try to play a bit longer. Hopefully we can win the next one with a big margin as well."

RCB skipper Daniel Vettori said that this win was exactly what the doctor ordered.

"It's what we needed to do. We needed a big one to give ourselves a chance. Gayle showed what a good player he is during the IPL, and again today. We were still battling however with the way Somerset started," Vettori said.

Although he wasn't happy with his bowlers' performance during the KKR game, he said that today it was "satisfactory."

"I thought 185 was par-score on this track and we got above that. We knew that chasing this target would be tough."

Somerset skipper Alfonso Thomas said that they could have gone with an off-spinner rather than going with three left-arm spinners which made their attack look predictable.

"We could have done with an off-spinner, but taking nothing away from Chris, he paced his innings nicely," he said.