Jaipur: Rahul Dravid's decision to back up his pacers in the match against Kolkata Knight Riders paid rich dividends for Rajasthan Royals as they won the match by 19 runs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Monday. In all praise for his bowlers, the Rajasthan skipper said that though his team was 15-20 runs short, his bowlers responded well to the situation.

"With the bat, we were at least 15-20 runs short. But our bowlers responded very well. Sidharth Trivedi bowled a good spell. I think Gambhir's wicket was a big one and we picked regular wickets in the early overs,” said Dravid, adding that the partnership between Hodge and Yagnik got them to a fighting total.

On being asked about his decision to leave out spinners, Dravid said, “Look at their middle order, Yusuf Pathan, Eoin Morgan, Manoj Tiwary, Gautam Gambhir, who wants to bowl spin to them. We just tried to pound them with a bit of pace."

Meanwhile disappointed with the team's performance, Gautam Gambhir said that losing wickets at wrong time didn't help their cause. "We kept losing wickets at the wrong time. 144 was a good job done by the bowlers. It was a good wicket to bat on and we should have chased it. We played bad shots and kept losing wickets whenever we had a partnership. The way Brett bowled are very good signs for us. Hopefully we can get many more pitches like this," said Gambhir.

Siddharth Trivedi, who got the man-of-the-matchaward, said, "Ball was seaming a bit in the first innings and it really worked bowling wicket to wicket. It suited my style of bowling. I enjoyed bowling here. In India, if you get such wickets, fast bowlers put in more effort. Tait is a good mate and he guides me when I approach him. Sometimes I feel he bowls 150 and I am only in 130s but I use what I have."