The Punjab Kings opener Mayank Agarwal started off on a horrible note in the 14th edition of the IPL after a resounding season last year in UAE. He was dismissed cheaply in the first game against the Rajasthan Royals while in the next game against the Chennai Super Kings he was the victim of an unplayable delivery by Deepak Chahar.
The right-hander was facing two setbacks one after another, but coming into the game against the Delhi Capitals on Sunday night, Agarwal had moved on from those failures and instead backed his thinking that yielded a lot of runs in the last season of the IPL.
“I wasn't thinking too much, I planned to do and keep the mindset that worked for me last year. I thought the last match I had a good ball, I didn't want to stress too much about it and wanted to look forward and so stuck to what worked for me. I was batting well in the nets, I was getting into good positions, it was about holding shape and I don't want to live in the previous games and I am happy how I batted,” Agarwal said in the post-match press conference.
Agarwal Coming into the third game against the Delhi Capitals, Agarwal had a lot of tougher challenge against the bowling attack comprised of Kagiso Rabada, Chris Woakes and Ravichandran Ashwin. Interestingly, Agarwal had played a sublime innings against the Delhi Capitals when these two sides had met for the first time in the last season as well.
Also, like that game last year, the Delhi Capitlas proved to be triumphant and Agarwal commended Capitals batsmen as well as pointing out to the dew as a disadvantage for his bowlers.
He said that they could not execute their plans under pressure, unlike the Capitals bowling attack that switched to a death bowling mode after the 12-over mark and stopped the Kings from running away with a big score.
"I thought Delhi Capitals batted exceedingly well, also there was a dew factor. Credited to Delhi bowlers how they executed after the 12 overs, they went into death bowling and executed it beautifully,” Agarwal added.
"I don't think we can do much about it as players. It boils down to execution under pressure and practising that. Those are the things which are under our control."
The Punjab Kings have won one and lost two games out of three games they have played this season. They have not been able to put out a team performances with all the three departments clicking simultaneously.