CLT20: Will Kings XI Punjab repeat its IPL 7 feat?

New Delhi: Cricket is the batsman's game or so is said. Finalist of last session's IPL Kings XI Punjab has it….the deepest batting line-up among all yet they are found wanting when it comes to bowling. George Bailey led one of the hot favorites Punjab, though started their maiden CLT20 campaign with a thumping win by 5 wickets over the Australian T20 side Hobart Hurricanes, but can they continue the performance and repeat the feat of IPL season?It was an all-round show by the Sri Lankan Thisara Perera who picked up 2 wickets and scored 35 off 20 balls to help his side get off to a winning start. This shows the depth of their batting line up; from Virender Sehwag and Manan Vohra in the opening they have the players till no. 7 who can bat. The thing which should worry about as they progress further is their bowling.Their bowling attack has not been the best in the IPL season and the loss of Mitchell Johnson and Sandeep Sharma due to injury is nothing but like adding salt to their injury. Sandeep Sharma was their leading wicket taker in IPL with 18 wickets followed by Mitchell Johnson (17) who is struggling due to rib injury. However Akshar Patel who also bagged 17 wickets is still in the squad.There is no doubt that their batsmen like Glenn Maxwell, George Bailey, David Miller, Virender Sehwag played an important role in taking Kings XI to their first IPL final. But what happened in the final? Their batsmen set a target of 200 for KKR with the help of Wriddhiman Saha's century but bowlers could not defend this total and they ended as runners up.In first 14 league matches, Kings XI conceded highest 2229 runs in 276.1 overs bowled in total. Parvinder Awana who picked up the crucial wicket of Hurricanes' Travis Birt in Thursday's match was the second most expensive bowler in an innings who conceded 59 runs in 4 overs for 2 wickets while Karanveer Singh conceded 54 in 4 overs but also took 4 wickets. However he again proved to be costly against Hobart Hurricanes where he leaked 37 runs in 3 overs with just one wicket of Shoaib Malik.Their batsmen on the other hand are their main strength. During the IPL, Kings XI had won six out of seven matches batting second, and had chased 190-plus targets thrice successfully. But on a greenish Mohali pitch where the back-of-a-length ball behaved a touch unpredictably - moving sideways when new, stopping on the batsmen later on, and often bouncing more than expected - their top order were quickly in trouble.Virender Sehwag's first-ball dismissal owed more to his impetuosity than to the conditions, but Wriddhiman Saha, David Miller and Manan Vohra were all discomfited by the extra bounce, and ended up skying catches to mid-on or mid-off while going hard at length balls.None of the batsmen apart from Glenn Maxwell (43), Thisara Perera and George Bailey could perform. Maxwell continuing his attacking form since IPL scored another 40+ total in just 25 balls while Thisara Perera who was not given a chance to play in IPL picked up 2 wickets and also scored 35 off just 20 deliveries to take Kings XI to victory in their first CLT20 game.Skipper Bailey (34) also supported Perera to build a solid 69 run stand. Here the top order collapse who struggled with extra bounce might give tension to Priety Zinta owned franchisee.But looking on to their IPL performance Sehwag and Miller who scored 455 and 446 runs respectively where Sehwag also scored a brilliant century, it cannot be denied that they can't repeat that feat.Not to forget the Maxwell show. He missed his century on 3 occasions and blasted 552 runs in 16 matches with a strike rate of 187. A combination of Sehwag, the “M” factor (Maxwell and Miller) and Perera at no. 7 really forms the best and most feared batting line up. But what about their bowling? Yes, it's just a flip.If Johnson does not return to the side on time, it might be too late for the Kings XI as he is the most experienced and main strike bowler for them. Apart from him only Balaji is left in the squad who has rich international experience in bowling. The team also lacks a professional and quality spinner.Currently Karanveer Singh and Akshar Patel are there as full time spinners who are also supported by the occasional spin of Maxwell and Sehwag.With their next encounter with the Caribbean T20 champs Barbados Tridents on Saturday, there are 3 matches left in the group stage and they need a quality bowling department to pick up crucial wickets. Or else the skipper will have to depend on his part time bowlers which may not be a good move.