Mumbai: Deccan Chargers will not be able to defend their title this year after having crashed out of the tournament on Thursday after their semi-final loss to the Chennai Super Kings but skipper Adam Gilchrist still patted his teammates, saying they proved their detractors wrong by reaching the semifinal of the Indian Premier League.

The defending champions were down in the dumps after having lost five matches on the trot but Gilchrist and his men scripted an amazing turnaround to reach the semifinal where Chennai Super Kings thumped them by 38 runs at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday night.

The defeat, however, could not dampen the mood of the former Australian wicket-keeper who said, “I’m extremely pleased with the boys. We have done very well to reach the semifinals after a lot of people did not think much of our chances.”

Gilchrist said he was disappointed not to go beyond the semifinal but felt chasing a victory target of 143 was not easy on the pitch which slowed down as the match progressed. “Obviously I’m disappointed for not having a shot at the final. But it’s becoming difficult to chase on these wickets which have become a bit tired and also slowed down, though not many matches have been played here,” said Gilchrist.

Gilchrist said that the team is now looking forward to playing against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in Saturday’s third-place playoff match at the same venue, which will decide which team would make it to Septembers Champions T20 League. “We would pick ourselves up for Saturday’s match. We want to play in the Champions League again. We enjoyed playing in it last year,” the Australian said.

Gilchrist said the team’s strategy was to start slowly, keep wickets in hand at the beginning and then finish the job but it did not happen. He also praised the bowling of Chennai off spinner R Ashwin who once again bowled with the new ball and finished with one for 14.

“Ashwin has been bowling beautifully throughout the tournament with the new ball. It was risky going after him. We thought we could keep wickets in hand by starting cautiously. In hindsight, we could have been a bit more aggressive initially,” he said.

He also defended the inclusion of Herschelle Gibbs for Mitchell Marsh. “We got Herschelle back into the team for Mitchell Marsh. It was one of the balancing acts, as we did not need Mitchell’s bowling component,” he explained.

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