The Wicket Was A Bit Low And Slow, But 120-130 Was Not Enough: KL Rahul

Punjab Kings captain KL Rahul was at a loss of words after they went down to the Kolkata Knight Riders by five wickets. Kolkata Knight Riders scrapped their way to a five-wicket win, bouncing back from registering four losses on the trot. KL Rahul, who managed only 19 runs in 20 balls, lamented making 123, which he claimed was not enough.

KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal yet again started defensively as they made less than 40 in five overs. The captain was the first to go, holing out to Sunil Narine at the edge of the circle off Pat Cummins. Chris Gayle perished for a first-ball duck, while Deepak Hooda departed as Eoin Morgan took an excellent low catch. Mayank Agarwal top-scored with 31 before Rahul Tripathi plucked a tumbling catch. The rest of the batting order kept collapsing until a few hits from Chris Jordan, who smoked three sixes to carry Punjab to a respectable total. Prasidh Krishna was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets.

Kolkata Knight Riders lost three wickets in three overs, with Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, and Sunil Narine scoring only nine runs between them. Captain Eoin Morgan and Rahul Tripathi stitched a 68-run stand to put the Knight Riders’ innings back on track. Tripathi holed out at 41 to long-on, followed by Andre Russell departing to a direct hit from Arshdeep Singh. Morgan, who gained the man of the match award for his unbeaten 47, stayed till the end with Dinesh Karthik to take the Knight Riders home.

A few soft dismissals are that’s costing us the game: KL Rahul

KL Rahul was at a loss for words following Punjab Kings’ performance as he lamented the lack of acclimatization to the conditions. The 28-year old admitted that the pitch was low and slow; however, 120-130 was not the required score and bemoaned some soft dismissals. The right-handed batsman claimed it was difficult to understand the shots to be played in the first six overs, but gave no excuses for not adapting quickly to the conditions. He hopes for the team to learn from their mistakes and credited Jonty Rhodes for Ravi Bishnoi’s terrific catch at deep mid-wicket off Sunil Narine’s bat. He heaped further praises on Rhodes for injecting the energy on the players.

“I really don’t know what to say, it was a poor performance from us. We should have adapted better on a new pitch, we could have applied a lot more with the bat and get that extra 20-30 runs. The wicket was a bit low and slow, but 120-130 was not enough. A few soft dismissals are that’s costing us the game. The pitch was a bit two-paced and stayed up and down as well. It was hard in the first six overs to understand the good shots to play on this pitch. It was expected that the pitch was difficult to assess at a new venue when you’re batting first, but we should have assessed and adapted quickly but we couldn’t do that. We have a few more games here and we hope to learn from our mistakes. That was a stunning catch (from Bishnoi), we’ve been a good fielding side. We have Jonty Rhodes who pushes the boys at every training session. He’s a tough task master and he puts everyone to test. He has a great energy off the field and that rubs off on the players,” KL Rahul told in the post-match presentation.

Also Read: Watch: Ravi Bishnoi Plucks A Stunning Catch As Sunil Narine Fails To Trouble The Scores