I worked on my yorkers: Cooper

Kevon Cooper's magnificent 4-wicket haul rocked the Perth middle order and set the game up for Rajasthan. The man of the match stated that he had worked hard on his yorkers and was glad that it paid off well for him. Cooper picked up wickets in heaps and wreaked havoc on Perth in the middle overs. He first got rid of Hilton Cartwright and Ashton Turner in the 12th over before accounting for Joe Mennie and Ashton Turner off successive deliveries in the 18th.

His lengths were particularly impressive and he pitched the ball up to the batsmen, Cartwright was trapped lbw off a yorker and Turner was cleaned up by a scorcher in the block hole. "It is good to come out here and bowl well. The first two games didn't go my way but I am happy that I did well today and my team won. I worked on my yorkers and it came off well for me. To be playing alongside Dravid, Watson and some of the young guys is a good feeling," stated an elated Cooper.

Rajasthan skipper, Rahul Dravid was very pleased with his side's performance as Rajasthan sailed into the semi-finals with three wins from as many matches. It was a comprehensive 9 wicket victory for the home team with plenty to spare. Dravid acknowledged that the win was set up by his bowlers. Kevon Cooper was the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets and was given excellent support by James Faulkner and Pravin Tambe who chipped in with 2 wickets each giving nothing away to the Perth batsmen. "It's nice to win and it's nice to play well. I thought it was a clinical performance today. We can always improve, we are always up against top teams. The bowlers pulled it off really well after they got off to a start," quoted Dravid.

He further hailed the match-winning stand between Sanju Samson and Ajinkya Rahane after his own dismissal in the first over of the Rajasthan innings. "Sanju and Rahane ensured that there were no alarms after I got out in the first over. We are looking forward to take on Otago, it should be a great game of cricket. We are staying here and we would like to end on a high," added Dravid.

Perth find themselves in the bottom of Group A with 2 losses from 3 games. Their skipper, Simon Katich admitted that their overall performance left much to be desired. He stated that the batsmen fell well short and the bowlers could not do much either after capturing Dravid in the first over. "We are learning the hard way. Unfortunately, we were no way near our best with the bat. Even though we got an early wicket we couldn't do much later," said Katich.

Ashton Agar, Joel Paris and Ashton Turner all made their T20 debuts against the Lions in the rain-abandoned match in Ahmedababd whereas Burt Cockley earned his cap against Otago in the 62-run loss in Jaipur. "We presented four caps in the first two matches and it is very tough for those guys to do well straightaway in a big tournament like this. Hopefully we will do well back home in the Big Bash. We would like to do well in the last game and spoil others' party," added Katich. Perth play their last match against Mumbai in Delhi on the 2nd of October.