Newsfile: May 23

'Captaincy has made me calmer': Harbhajan Singh, the Mumbai Indians captain, has said captaincy has taught him to take things in his stride during difficult moments. "From the last time, I have become calmer and more composed. I don't get angry when things don't go in our favour," Harbhajan told iplt20.com. "You should send positive vibes. There are times when you talk to your team-mates and suddenly you realise that you can pull off the game from the most difficult positions." When asked why he hadn't always bowled his quota of four overs, Harbhajan said such decisions were based on the match situation. "For the team's sake you have to take bold decisions of not bowling a bowler if he's not required, be it Harbhajan, Muralitharan or Warne," Harbhajan said. "It's not that I don't want to bowl - I always want to bowl as many overs that I can. But as a captain you have to stop thinking about yourself."

'Gambhir an outstanding leader': Kolkata Knight Riders wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum has credited the captain Gautam Gambhir for helping the team reach its first IPL final. "I think he is an outstanding leader. He is very soft spoken in the changing room and around the group and on the field he leads through performance and through actions," McCullum told iplt20.com. "Technically, he has been very good and has used Sunil Narine incredibly well and he has got a lot out of the other guys as well." McCullum, who opens the batting with Gambhir, said he has enjoyed watching him bat from the other end. Gambhir is also the leading run-scorer for Knight Riders so far, with 588 runs, including six fifties. "I, from the other end, try to give him strike that is probably the reverse of the roles what we thought of at the start of the tournament," McCullum said. "I can't take credit for the partnerships where he has played beautifully and made my work easy, and I just try to hang around and get him on strike."