Will try to perform to the best of my abilities in WI: Parthiv

Parthiv Patel doesn`t want to put himself under unnecessary pressure that he will be keeping in place of Dhoni and opening with Gambhir.

Chennai: Parthiv Patel doesn`t want to put himself under unnecessary pressure that he will be keeping in place of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and opening with Gautam Gambhir in place of Virender Sehwag.

"I can`t say that I will bat like Sehwag and keep like Dhoni. I will give my hundred percent and try to perform to the best of my abilities," Parthiv told reporters. He missed a couple of stumping chances (Michael Hussey and Wriddhiman Saha) but he feels that his overall performance with gloves has been good. As Kochi finished their campaign with six wins, Parthiv feels that there are lot of positives that one can take from this campaign."There has been lot of positives. Looking at the team sheet of Kochi before the start of the IPL. Everyone thought that ours is a weaker side. We did not have any outstanding performers. RP Singh`s bowling has been a big plus as he got the ball to swing." On his team’s performance, Parthiv said that key to defeat was not being able to accelerate after the 15th over. "We have done well to restrict them to 150. This was not the usual Chepauk wicket where it turns quite a lot in the second innings. We had a plan of having wickets in hand but we could not accelerate after 15th over. In fact not getting too many boundaries till the 13th over was another big reason," he assessed. He conceded that Chennai were a better fielding side. "Having played for the CSK earlier, I know how they prepare. It`s working well for them. Ours is a good fielding side but I guess we were a bit short on intensity today."On sending Gnaneswara Rao ahead of seasoned Owais Shah, Parthiv explained, "Rao was hitting the ball well in the nets so we thought of trying him at NO. 3 today." Asked whether veteran Muttiah Muralitharan`s performance was a let-down, Parthiv defended the veteran spinner. "You can`t blame Murali as he has played only four games. Our Indian batting line-up was quite weak and so we went with four overseas batsmen. That`s why we couldn`t play Murali. But I have had a word with him and he is keen to come back next year," Parthiv concluded. PTI