Pune: On a difficult pitch where scoring was never easy, Kolkata Knight Riders beat Pune Warriors India by 34 runs to qualify for the playoffs in IP-5 at No 2 position, which gives them two chances to qualify for the finals in Season V. Happy with the performance of his team KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir said that they were treating it as a quarterfinals and would like to win the games ahead. Meanwhile, PWI captain Sourav Ganguly said that his young side have had a tough time in the middle.

Gambhir said that they wanted to finish in the top 2 and have managed to do that. “We play Delhi now and that will give us two chances to qualify for the finals. We were discussing before this game to treat this as the quarter-finals and win the next three matches to win the IPL,” said Gambhir.

Meanwhile Ganguly said that it had a tough season for his young franchise. “We struggled with the pitch and the toss too played its part. WE need to deal with it and get better. We need to get away from this, allow the boys to get away from wherever they are. No point in having post-mortems straightaway. Lot of things to do and get the right side, said Dada, adding that he hasn’t thought about his own plans yet.

Man-of-the-match Shakib al Hasan, said that it was a very similar wicket like that back home in Bangladesh. “I was hitting the ball well and had a good net session last night which proved to be good. We knew we could change the momentum by hitting a couple of boundaries. The way we are bowling throughout the tournament, it was always going to be tough chasing 135-140 against us. We are confident and we would like to continue playing the way we have.”