New South Wales captain Simon Katich heaped praised on his team-mates for their all-round show against country cousins Victoria Bushrangers in the Champions League Twenty20 semifinals and said their consistent performance will give them the edge in the final.
"It was a great team effort everybody chipped in. David Warner and Phil Hughes set the foundation for us when we batted. Others chipped in lower down the order. After that our bowlers did a fantastic job," Katich said after his side crushed country cousins Victoria Bushrangers by 79 runs.
"We have been consistent with bat and ball. Our bowlers have been fantastic and batsmen have not let the team down. I think we will go into the final with a lot of confidence especially after today's win," he added.
Asked which side between Trinidad and Tobago or the Cape Cobras he would like to face in the final on Friday, Katich said, "Every side in the tournament is a strong side. We have no preference we just want to carry on the good work into the final."
Katich had special praise for his bowlers and said they were mainly responsible for his side's progress thus far.
"The bowlers have been fantastic. The new ball bowlers are quick and accurate. They (the bowlers) have been mainly instrumental for us to reach this far," he said.
Victoria captain Cameron White admitted it turned out to be too many runs for his side to chase down at the end.
"Too many runs to chase down on this wicket and we did not have a great start at three wickets for six runs. It was not an ideal start," he said.
White conceded NSW were the better side in batting and bowling.
"Their top order batted well and their bowlers did a good job. The fast bowlers were quick and slow bowlers extracted turn," he said.
He said his side have learnt a lot from the tournament and would try their best next year to have a crack at the title.
"We will go back and would play in Australia to qualify for the tournament again next year. We want to have a crack next year. It is great experience for some of our players who have not played in India before," he added.
Man-of-the match David Warner said all the gameplan NSW chalked out before the match came out good.
"We decided we should hit as straight as possible in this ground and we did that. We also knew that 160 plus would be difficult to chase down here. We were also contemplating the wicket would turn in the second innings and fortunately it did," he said.
