KL Rahul in action against Chennai Super Kings in Dubai on Sunday.
It has been a tough Indian Premier League’s perennial underachievers Kings XI Punjab, who just had to endure a face-saving 10-wicket defeat against three-time champions Chennai Super Kings in Dubai on Sunday. This was team’s fourth loss of the season with one just win to their name as they sit at the bottom of the table.
Despite looking to set a decent target in the first innings at one end with KL Rahul (63 off 52) at the crease, the team could only reach 178 at a pitch with dew factor expected to come in in the second innings.
The team’s bowling fallacies were then exposed by CSK openers Shane Watson (83 off 53) and Faf du Plessis (83 off 57) to ensure CSK reach the target in 17.3 overs.
KL Rahul, who was expectedly frustrated with the win, accepted that team’s morale is down and addressed where the team is going wrong.
“It's hard being on the losing side for so many games on the trot. We need to come back harder and better. There's no rocket science where we are going wrong, it's the execution,” he said at the post-match presentation.
He admitted that not taking wickets of Watson and du Plessis early cost them dearly and admitted that it was hard to counter them when they were scoring at a brisk rate.
“If we don't get wickets of the class of Watson and du Plessis, we are in trouble. It's a bit hard to attack as a captain when they are going at 10 runs an over in the powerplay,” he said.
