'Early wickets helped settle my nerves'

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Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan whose all-round show helped KKR beat Rajasthan Royals said that getting early wickets boosted his confidence. 

"Early wickets boosted my confidence and helped me settle my nerves. Whenever you bowl the first over, there are butterflies in the stomach.

"This was one pitch where I needed to bowl well and I did pitch the ball in right areas," man-of-the-match Shakib said at the post match presentation ceremony at the Eden Gardens on Friday.

Not only did he take three for 17, his big six in the penultimate over helped his team's cause. 

"There wasn't much pressure on me as we were close to run-a-ball and we needed just a boundary." 

Victorious skipper Gautam Gambhir gave credit to his spinners Shakib and Sunil Narine. 

"Always knew 120-125 will be a good, but we had the batting to chase it down. They started well but Shakib did well along with Narine and later the batsmen like Jacques, Manoj did well.

"Credit to Narine for the way in which he bowled the 19th over. He is a mystery bowler, difficult to play and the ploy keeping him for the end helped." 

Losing captain Rahul Dravid felt that 131 was a competitive score. 

"We always knew it was a competitive score, but they built up a partnership after an early wicket. We knew we had to go hard up front and set up a base.

"I believe the experience to play on these tracks will help the youngsters. Although we are not comfortable losing two in a row but hope to bounce back soon," the former India captain said.