Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane took all the blame after the defending champions lost by 16 runs while chasing 112 against Punjab Kings at the new PCA stadium in Chandigarh on Tuesday. It was also the lowest total defended in the history of IPL.
Opting to bat first, Punjab Kings were all out for just 111 runs after Harshit Rana, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy ripped apart the opposition batting. In what looked like a easy chase, Yuzvendra Chahal turned the table with his figures of 4/28 in his four overs.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi was the top scorer for KKR with 37 as the three-time champions were bowled out for 95 in 15.1 overs. “Nothing to explain, we all saw what happened there. Pretty disappointed with the effort. I’ll take the blame, played the wrong shot, although it was missing,” Rahane said at the post-match presentation.
At a time, when the approach should have been slow and steady wins the race, KKR batters lost their wickets while trying to play unnecessary big shots. Rahane also admitted it was a complete batting failure from their part.
“We batted really badly as a batting unit, we take full responsibility. Bowlers did really well on this surface, restricting a strong Punjab batting lineup to 111,” he added.
“On this wicket, batting with full face (was better). Sweep was pretty hard to play. Keep the intent going but play cricketing shots. We were reckless and should take full responsibility.”
IPL Points table after PBKS vs KKR
After this win, Punjab Kings entered the top four while KKR dropped a spot to sixth. The Shreyas Iyer-led side now have eight points from six matches while KKR has just three wins from seven games.
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