Navjot Singh Sidhu was all praises for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) mentor Gautam Gambhir after the franchise became the first team this IPL 2024 to qualify for the playoffs. This happened after KKR defeated MI by 18 runs in a rain shortened game in Kolkata on May 11.
The two-time champions posted 157/7 with Venkatesh Iyer top scoring with 42 off rain-shortened being asked to bat first in a 16-overs-a-side match.
Mumbai raced to 65/0 before Varun Chakravarthy got the big wickets of impact substitute Rohit Sharma (19) and skipper Hardik Pandya (2). Already out of the playoff race, five-time champions Mumbai finished on 139/8.
The official broadcaster of the tournament shared two videos after the match which has former cricketer-turned-commentator Navjot Singh Sidhu lauding the KKR team and their mentor Gautam Gambhir.
"I see that whenever there is pressure, Gautam Gambhir gets more inspired, that I should go and tell the boys this and that. And it should be exactly like that. Everything is fine when things are normal. Anybody can be a pilot when the sea is calm. But a person's character is tested when the going is tough,” Sidhu said on Star Sports.
Sidhu adds in another video, "KKR is the only team which has bowlers who have taken 10-10 wickets and the sixth has taken 9. Show me one team who has this. The most valuable player in the tournament is Sunil Narine. Who got Starc (Mitchell)? Everybody was saying 23 crore, 23 crore. The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. It is the value addition, boss. Don't measure him in crores, just see what value addition he is bringing. Look at KKR's bowlers, top batsmen, everybody is in form. They stand like recruits, padded-up, all ready to go in anytime. They have one parallel and power centre. Everybody will feel they deserve to do that. They have balance, they have a great mentor, they have a superb captacenterey have everybody in form. What else do you want? You can't have everything, where will you keep it?"
