Deccan Chargers slumped to its sixth defeat in the ongoing IPL in Hyderabad on Tuesday and captain Kumar Sangakkara blamed his butterfingered fielders and some sloppy death bowling for the Hyderabad outfit's disappointing performance against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Riding on Yusuf Pathan's explosive 26-ball 47, KKR posted a challenging 169 for four and then restricted Deccan to 149 for six to eke out a 20-run win.
Pathan, who cashed in on two missed opportunities -- first by Amit Mishra and then by Daniel Christian, murdered the Deccan bowlers towards at the end and together with Manoj Tiwary added 80 runs for the fourth wicket off just eight overs to power KKR to the challenging score.
"We should have limited them to around 150-155. We need to hold our catches, bowl well in the death overs and build on solid starts. Kolkata outplayed us and it's back to the drawing board for us," a disappointing Sangakkara said.
"Our openers tried hard and delivered a solid start."
KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir lauded his teammates for coming up with a professional performance, that took them to the top of the team standings with 12 points from nine matches.
"It was a professional effort from everyone, and it was a good performance from our bowlers to restrict them," he said.
Gambhir, who scored 35 off 22 balls, did not field for better part of the Deccan innings due to a knee problem but he erased fears of any serious injury problem.
"I had a bit of pain in the knee and hopefully I should recover for the next game," the left-hander said.
Man-of-the-match Pathan said he just tried to play his natural game.
"I struck the ball very well today. The captain (Gambhir) told me to just play my game," he said.
