IPL 2018: It’s bitterly disappointing that we did not win against Mumbai: Andrew Tye

Kings XI Punjab’s disastrous second half of the ongoing season extended by one more match on Wednesday. Mumbai Indians beat the Ravi Ashwin-led side by three runs to pile more misery on them.

The Kings XI started the season with a bang, notching up five wins in their first six games to make home in the top-half of the points table. However, the second half is turning out to be a nightmare for them. On Wednesday, they lost their sixth game in seven games and are now in danger of missing out on a playoff spot.

Unlike Kings XI, Tye continued to torment opposition with his bowling. Against Mumbai, he finished the game with figures of 4 for 16, his third 4-wicket haul in the last four games. After Mumbai were off to a good start, it was Tye who put Kings XI on top by dismissing – Evin Lewis, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav. As a result, Mumbai were reduced from 37 for no loss to 59 for 3.

He was brought back into the attack, for his last two overs in the death, and dismissed Hardik Pandya. The four-wicket haul took his tally to 24 this season as he further strengthened his position as the Purple Cap holder. However, his effort went in vain as Kings XI failed to chase down 187.

Speaking after the loss, he expressed his disappointment over the loss.

“It’s bitterly disappointing that we did not win against Mumbai tonight. We had the firepower in our team to chase it down and we could not do it. Doesn’t really matter if I take 4 for 16 or someone else takes 4/16. It means obviously someone else has let you down and it’s not a whole team effort. That is something that we’ve struggled for a lot this IPL,” he told the media.

He further blasted the batsmen for not supporting KL Rahul who once again waged a lone battle. Rahul scored 94 but apart from Aaron Finch (46), none of the other batsmen made any significant contribution.

“We haven’t had enough boys standing up other than KL with the bat or myself and Mujeeb (Ur Rehman) with the ball. So, fair credit to Mumbai. I personally feel they won the game with their fielding. In a close match like that, they made a couple of really good saves on the boundary… chased a couple of balls down and, you know, that makes a difference when you lose the match by about five runs,” said Tye.

Tye further refused to acknowledge that the mid-tournament break upset Kings XI’s rhythm.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “Sure, you can look at it and say we lost momentum after that break but at the same time we didn’t have anyone else stand up. You know, in the first few games we have KL, Chris Gayle and Karun Nair who’d scored half-centuries or a century. But if you look at it since the break, KL is the only batsmen who’s gone past fifty. As good as our bowling attack is….we haven’t been putting up complete performance as a team with both bat and the ball and that sums up why we probably haven’t won games lately.”