KKR will have to raise game in main draw: Kallis

Match lost but qualification for the main draw secured, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Jacques Kallis said his team will have to rise above the average if it wants to go far in the Champions League Twenty20.

Kolkata lost to Somerset by 11 runs in their final qualifying match yesterday but managed to make the main event after finishing third-best in the six-team qualifying round.

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"Obviously I was very pleased to qualify for the next round because that was the main objective. So, I am very pleased. But I think it was a very average performance by us," Kallis said in the post-match press conference late last night after his team was defeated by the Somerset.

Kallis conceded that the team did not perform too well in the match against Somerset, who also qualified for the main draw. "We knew they are a good side because they play a whole season of cricket," he said.

Asked how franchise owner Shahrukh Khan Kallis reacted to last night's loss and the qualification to the main draw, Kallis said the actor is pleased but wants better results.

"He is very pleased that we have qualified because that was the main objective. We are happy to qualify but there is lot to improve on," Kallis said.

He hoped that KKR's regular captain Gautam Gambhir, who sustained a concussion during the India's tour of England, would be fit to play in the main tournament.

Regretting that his team would miss playing at its home ground in Kolkata, Kallis hoped that spectators in Hyderabad would give it support.

The CLT20 matches scheduled to be played in Kolkata have been moved out to Hyderabad and Bangalore due to incessant rains in the Eastern Metropolis.