The game four of the tenth edition of IPL saw Kings XI Punjab defeating Rising Pune Supergiant by six wickets in their first clash of the season.
After RPS lost big guns like Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith and MS Dhoni, Ben Stokes scored a quickfire fifty. Kings XI Punjab lost four wickets but Glenn Maxwell and David Miller guided them well with an unbeaten partnership of seventy-nine runs.
This has been the eighth loss in a row batting first for Rising Pune Supergiant. Pune batted first on a sticky wicket and managed 163 for six on the back of a fifty from England’s import Ben Stokes and a valuable cameo from Manoj Tiwary.
A difficult wicket to defend on, Pune were twenty runs short. And in the end, despite picking some early wickets, Pune ended up losing it, feels Tiwary.
KXIP had a new skipper in the name of Maxwell. His 44 off 20 from and 30 off 27 from Miller ended another victory dream for the Rising Giants.
Excerpts:
On The Loss:
“See, I think, we were 20-25 runs short in this pitch, batting second looked easy, the pitch eased out a bit. While we batted first it was a little bit of moisture underneath and that’s the reason, we didn’t get the start, the way we wanted. But that’s the way it goes! Sometimes toss makes 10-15% of advantage and disadvantage at times. 22-25 runs made the difference.”
On The Pitch:
“Ya, that’s what I meant in my earlier answer as well, there was a little bit of moisture underneath, there was a covering of grass as well and you know they have swing bowlers thus credits also have to go to those first to Mohit and Sandeep. They bowled in the right channel and we lost a wicket in the very first over that was a little bit of setback for us but as I mentioned it was the pitch, the ball was coming to the bat in second half, spinners were not getting many turns and thus easy for them to chase down.”
On Playing The Right Combination:
“No, I think we were having a right combination. It’s just that the result doesn’t go well, it doesn’t mean that we were not with the right combination. It is a right decision of the team management and we all as a player have to back it. It’s just that I always believe in the execution part of each and every player, whether it’s in batting or bowling.I think we were short by 20-25 runs, we should have applied a little bit more and kept wickets in hand but that’s the way it goes! T20 is a very fast format and that is the reason here.”