Punjab Kings tasted their first defeat of the season, in much the same way as it had meted out defeats to their opponents. The master-chasers were out-chased, when defending 224. Captain Shreays Iyer took the defeat stoically and said during the presentation: “Tonight just was not our day, one of those days where it did not go our way.”
He praised the batters for the application they showed on a surface he termed “tacky”, where the odd one ball kept low and slow. “I think 224 was a brilliant score – kudos to the batters. It was an exceptional performance on this pitch, which was tacky and slow. We fell short in our execution (with the ball). If you have a certain plan set, when you execute it well, you triumph. We had planned to bowl a lot of slower ones, pace off, yorkers. I think we fell a bit short over there.”
The seam trio of Arshdeep Singh, Marco Jansen and Lockie Ferguson were especially wasteful, especially with the new ball, where they failed to contain Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. The three collectively bled 166 runs in 11.2 overs. Shreyas also dwelled on the excellent partnership between Donovan Ferreira and Shubham Dubey. “They had a tremendous partnership in the middle – Ferreira and Dubey scoring those crucial runs in the end. This is the format where a lot of players have changed their game and they go from ball one,” Shreyas said.
But he said the team will take the defeat on its chin. “It is important that we stick to the things we have been doing and have been following throughout. The body was also a bit fatigued but that cannot be the reason here,” he said.
“We have a couple of days to go back to the drawing board and come back (stronger). This is our first loss, it definitely teaches you a lot,” he added.
He asserted that it was not a case of losing nerves defending. “We have played games where we have chased and defended 200-plus.. I feel that in retrospect, many things could have happened, but I just want to stay positive going ahead and be optimistic in our approach,” he said.
