Adam Gilchrist was pleased to have begun the new IPL season positively after leading his team to a victory in Cape Town.

The 2008 bottom-placed team looked in control from the time they were asked to bowl first by their opponents and turned in an impressive bowling and fielding display to dismiss Kolkata for only 101.

"It was a good day, an ideal way to start the tournament, especially after last year," said the Australian. "We've really worked hard in camp since we got together in South Africa.

"We identified areas that we lacked in last year and we saw some great results tonight. There were also times last year when there were sort of 50-50 positions and we couldn't quite close games out and the guys were quite professional tonight.

Fireplay

"It was pleasing, small steps, but yeah, we're under way."

RP Singh was the chief destroyer for the Chargers, claiming four wickets for 22 runs, and was given good support by Pragyan Ojha (two for 14) and Scott Styris (two for 32).

But Gilchrist had special praise for another man - West Indian Fidel Edwards, whose four overs came at a cost of only six runs and included a maiden.

He continued: "We had the firepower of Fidel today - he was fantastic. He just summed up things well and was extremely well supported by the rest of the bowling group, including RP, who was awesome."

Hyderabad blow Kolkata away

Reflecting on his own position coming into the game, Gilchrist added: "I haven't played much since the last IPL. So I was really excited and very nervous about today because I've seen some great work done by everyone in the build-up.

"I was hopeful that we were able to just play well regardless of the result. We've done both, played well and managed to pick up the win."

Kolkata captain Brendon McCullum blamed their poor top-order batting display for the loss.

He said: "The way we started with the bat was hugely disappointing. We've got such strong players at the top of the order and to have missed out like we did was frustrating.

"To score a 100 in any form of the game is not good enough. We were always on the back foot from there on in.

"Things never quite went our way through the middle but, with the start we had, we were always going to struggle."

The New Zealander also praised their opponents' bowling display, adding: "I thought they bowled really well too. They applied a lot of pressure every time we lost a wicket and it always made it hard for us to gain any sort of momentum at all.

"We've got to try and maintain our enthusiasm, maintain our confidence and just move onto the next game. Hopefully, we'll get a better result."