Raipur: Southern Express captain Jehan Mubarak said that an over from Northern Knights's spinner Ish Sodhi and failure score in death overs proved fatal for his team in the match against the New Zealand side on saturday.
Northern Knights registered a convincing seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka's Southern Express in a rain-curtailed opening game of the Champions League T20 here at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium.
"I think we got off to good start. But that one over (fifth) from Ish Sodhi sort of broke the momentum and gave initiative back to them. Two overs in the end, we got less runs. These overs made a great difference," Mubarak said at the post-match conference.
Asked about Kane Williamson's brilliant knock of 29-ball-52, Mubarak said, "Williamson was patient enough to bat. He got off to a good start and batted through well. That's something we lost. Our two openers got out in the middle and the guys coming found it a bit hard to get set."
Bowling first after losing the toss also made some difference, he said. "It was getting wet. So it was slightly difficult to bowl."
