Faf du Plessis, Rotterdam Dockers Captain: Yeah, good score. I did feel the wicket was a lot better than yesterday. I mean, it seems over here there's a bit of grass and moisture, and the pitch actually slides on a lot better, whereas if it looks like a good batting pitch, it's quite slow and low. But yeah, very clinical once again. The way I feel like we restricted them, we felt that was just below-par score, the way that the pitch was playing. And once again, you have to put those partnerships together, so clinical in the chase. Yeah, enjoying it. I mean, it's also nice to do a lot of running, being busy out there and putting the youngsters under pressure with the twos. But yeah, pleasing start to the competition. I put it down to a very wet outfield, but it's one of those days where I was very surprised myself, because normally I pride myself on making sure that I'm plus saving runs in the field. So I knew with the bat I had to make up for the misfield. Yeah, it's simple. We just look at how to get better and look at the basics of the game, focus on the small things. If you do those things over a period of time really well, then where you are in the log or what's left in the competition is still a long way away. So we're very strong and strict on that, to make sure we just keep doing the basics really well
Ravichandran Ashwin, Dublin Guardians Captain: Right from the end of the power play, we were not able to remove those three together to be able to put pressure. But that's been the case. We have a bit of experience, but to be fair, it was a much better performance. We had some good things going for us. With the bowling, I just felt that the game was in a place where, if we had one over from a left-arm spinner matching up to the right-hander, I could always come back in when the requirement was there. We just need to get better. It's a question of skills and getting the right lengths. We're missing length, we're missing line on occasions, but that's expected from inexperienced bowlers. Josh is making a comeback after a very long break, and Matt's pretty inexperienced. Overall, I think they are showing signs of being really good bowlers. We're pleased; much, much better than what it was in the past with the bat, so hopefully we can stack it together. James Vince played an outstanding innings. I thought Sanjay showed some decent batting prowess as well. Vijay was pretty good, much better start inside the power play. I think that's the best start we've had in the tournament, 54 for 1 inside the power play. We'll take that, and there are some signs to build upon. Not that I would say we are anywhere close to, you know, snapping up a win. We lost by another over today, so that's pretty big in a T20 game. But we try to stack it up one after the other... and you can't search anywhere else; the heroes have to be in the dressing room.
James Vince played an elegant knock laced with eye-catching strokes and, despite seemingly struggling with a hamstring issue, he braved it out, and Guardians ended up posting a competitive score. But apart from Ravichandran Ashwin, nobody from Guardians could make regular inroads, and they were slightly behind in the game. Faf du Plessis' calculated knock and acceleration after reaching his 50 made the equation a lot easier. Heinrich Klaasen ensured there was no panic, and he calmly guided his team to the doorstep of victory.
END OF OVER:18 | 12 Runs | RTD: 173/3 (6 runs required from 12 balls, RR: 9.61, RRR: 3.00)
- Heinrich Klaasen32 (25b)
- Ben McDermott5 (6b)
- Josh Little4-0-42-2
- Matt Hollard3-0-35-0
END OF OVER:17 | 11 Runs | RTD: 161/3 (18 runs required from 18 balls, RR: 9.47, RRR: 6.00)
- Heinrich Klaasen22 (21b)
- Ben McDermott3 (4b)
- Matt Hollard3-0-35-0
- Ravichandran Ashwin4-0-21-1
