Taylor rues fielding, happy with Warner pick

Ross Taylor has justified the decision to leave out regular Delhi Daredevils captain Mahela Jayawardene for the semi-final of the Champions League T20 against Lions. Jaywardene was replaced as opener by Australia's David Warner, who played his first match of the tournament, a game which Daredevils lost by 22 runs.

"Mahela [Jayawardene] and the selection committee came up with that [the decision to leave Jayawardene for Warner]," Taylor, who was Daredevils' captain for the match, said. "Hindsight is a funny thing. That was the team we went with and we weren't good enough at the end of the day."

Daredevils would have faced a lower target than the 140 they had to chase if they had been less sloppy in the field. Taylor said two of the reasons for the defeat were the fielding errors - Unmukt Chand, Umesh Yadav and Kevin Pietersen all dropped catches - and Lions' sensible bowling.

"It started in the field. We dropped a few too many catches and let a few runs through. We set ourselves a high standard and we didn't attain that, and needing 88 off the last ten we were anyways going to put ourselves under too much pressure. Lions bowled very well, they bowled to their fields and I guess the result speaks for itself.

"It was still very windy when they [Lions] were fielding. So, I wouldn't say that [the wind] was an excuse [for the inability to take the catches]."

Taylor said Kevin Pietersen, who top scored for Daredevils with 50, needed more support to have had a better chance of steering his team home.

"It just showed that it was one of those wickets in which you needed to give yourself a few balls, and [Pietersen] did that. He got through that hard stage early on and batted very well. He definitely played a lone hand, and he needed some support and we didn't give it to him."

The defeat was their first in this year's CLT20. But with two of their games being abandoned, Daredevils faced lengthy breaks between matches.

"It was really a stop-start tournament. We're all professional so you've got to deal with that when it comes, but I think it was only our third game in probably a couple of weeks, and when you play Twenty20 that seems a long time, but it's no excuse. We came here with high hopes and are disappointed to be leaving early.

"I think we come together at short notice, against all the other [non-IPL] teams who play quite often. Maybe that's a factor but I wouldn't say that's an excuse. The other teams that have made it through have just played better cricket."