A game that shouldn’t have even entered the 20th over as per the Sunrisers Hyderabad, ended up gobbling them to lose it by 12 runs, in what would be the nth dramatic ending involving Kings XI Punjab this season.
The Dubai wicket and Kings seemed to have a special connection as almost every match here (apart from one against CSK) has been one to remember for the Punjabis, no matter if they ended up on the winning side or not. In this one too, the fact that a team, that too Kings XI was able to defend 126 runs, even when the chasing team is at 100/4 in the 17th over.
But the bowlers of the Kings not only won the game but also reinstated the faith in them that they can defend any target.
Reacting to the 4th consecutive victory, the winning captain KL Rahul seemed happy and relieved at the same time, he said, “Yes we are making it (close finishes) a habit. In the first half, we somehow couldn't make this a habit.”
The 29-year-old further said, “I am just speechless right now, to be honest. I am very happy with the show from the boys.” Praising the teammates for the success, Rahul said that he was relieved that finally, the hard work put in by his players and the support staff was coming off. “The work done is always behind the scenes, not just the players, but the support staff. You can't change much in a player in two months but you can always make them mentally better and that's what coach Kumble, Andy, Charl, Jonty, and Wasim have done.”
Assessing the wicket Rahul said that he had already known that it was not a high scoring ground. “After I and Mandeep played the first over we knew it's not a high scoring wicket. We were thinking of close to 160. They went hard in the first six. But I knew we could pull things back if we don't leak many runs in the powerplay as we have two leggies,” he said speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony.
The Karnataka born further said that they planned for the defense of the total and he is happy that it worked out well. “We sat down and thought about the things that the bowlers would need in conditions like these and it's good to see the work paying off,” he said.
David Warner, the losing captain in this game was frustrated to see the hard work put in by himself and his partner Jonny Bairstow along with the bowlers. Talking about the loss he said, “Yeah it does (hurt a lot).”
The Australian then lauded his bowlers for doing a fantastic job with the ball in hand to restrict Punjab to as low as 126. “Our bowlers did a fantastic job to restrict them. After the start we got, we took our foot off the pedal. Felt on that wicket it was going to get tougher once the spin came into it,” he said.
Trying to explain the planned chase, which failed miserably, Warner said, “For us, it was about trying to apply pressure up front, negate the swing bowling, but obviously we didn't get across the line.”
“Today our bowlers executed the plans well, very happy with them. Just have to forget this game and move forward,” concluded the 33-year-old.
Most of the cricket experts were of the view that it wasn’t SRH’s match to lose and that the games which weren’t going in KXIP’s favour at the start of the tournament, were now all ending up in their favour, indicating that the fortunes are changing.
Cricketer turned commentator Aakash Chopra, pointing out he faults in the Hyderabad based team said that they might have gone through to the playoffs last year with just 12 points, but this year, they looked rugged and it wasn't just possible for them to make it through even after having 14 points.
Cricket analyst Boria Majumdar however took the opportunity to praise the two Indian batsmen Mandeep Singh (who lost his father) and Nitish Rana ( who lost his father-in-law) just before the game, saying that it took courage for then to play even in such conditions.
For veteran cricket journalist Ayaz Memon, it was a horrid show from the Sunrisers and a perfect one at that by the Kings XI, so good that to him they looked like making it to the playoffs.
Sambit Bal, another senior cricket journalist said that from now onwards, no one should stop watching the game involving the Kings XI because they are capable of turning it around from any position.
Harsha Bhohgle, the world-famous cricket commentator and journalist took this opportunity to showcase his shock at such a huge falter from his hometown team. He further said that the 'tide' is turning in favour of the Punjab unit.
KXIP now has three matches to play in which they need a maximum of three and a minimum of two wins to qualify. Their first test would be on the 26th of October against the Kolkata Knight Riders who are also in more or less similar situations. For SRH though, it looks like the game is almost over until and unless they win all their remaining games and then hope that the other teams lose as well.
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