With the three-wicket loss against Delhi Capitals at Dharamshala, Punjab Kings suffered their fourth consecutive loss in this year’s IPL. The Shreyas Iyer led team, which was once leading the points table and had six wins out of seven matches with one no result match, is now placed fourth in the points table. The team could have climbed to the top spot if they would have won the match. Defending 210 runs, Punjab Kings had Delhi Capitals at. 38 for 3 in five overs before their bowlers let the Axar Patel led side make a comeback in the match. With Capitals winning the match with one over to spare and Kings giving away 78 runs in the last five overs of Capitals’ innings Iyer sounded harsh on the team’s bowling as well fielding. When asked whether the team got it wrong in the match, Iyer spoke about how the team’s bowling and fielding let the team down.
“I mean, I don’t have to beat around the bush, I will just say our fielding and bowling again,” Iyer shared while speaking in the past match presentation.
Post their win against Delhi Capitals last month with the win being the team’s sixth win this season, Punjab Kings first lost against Rajasthan Royals followed by the loss against Gujarat Titans. The team then lost against Sunrisers’ Hyderabad in their last match prior to Monday’s game. On Monday, Punjab Kings had posted a total of 210 for 5 in 20 overs. The team was once placed at 51 for 0 after the third over but finished with a total of 210. Delhi Capitals lost three wickets in the power play with the wicket offering assistance for seamers. Interestingly, like Delhi Capitals, Punjab Kings too did not bowl a spinner while bowling. When asked whether the total of 210 was enough on the Dharamshala surface, Iyer spoke how he saw the total put by his team was 30 runs more on the Dharamshala wicket considering the situation. Absolutely, I feel that it was 30 runs more on this wicket considering how the ball was seeming and there was variable bounce. (On using spinners) There was absolutely a thought in my mind, but the way the ball was seaming and the way the wicket was helping the seamers, I think if we could have executed out line and length precisely, we could have been able to extract wickets. But unfortunately again, we didn’t,” added Iyer.
Punjab Kings gave away 129 runs in the last nine overs. At one stage, Delhi Capitals needed 68 runs off 30 balls but the Punjab Kings seamers could not defend the target with the visitors winning the match with one over to spare. Iyer spoke about how bowling hard length would have been the main focus in the death overs. “I always say that hard length, short of hard length is the best, especially when a new batsman is coming. And it’s not easy to hit, because if you keep repeating those balls, at least one, there is one ball there is a chance of a mishit and you can get a wicket. You know we fell short of planning,” concluded Iyer.
