K.L. Rahul, the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) opening batsman, is the only batsman to have amassed 600-plus so far in the Indian Premier League's (IPL) 2018 edition. His teammate Andrew Tye leads the wicket-takers' charts by a distance with 24 scalps. However, when it comes to the most important table – the league standings – Kings XI Punjab's slide in the latter half of the tournament has been inversely proportional to the duo's star act.
No wonder then that after yet another disappointing loss on Wednesday night, against Rohit Sharma's Mumbai Indians (MI), Kings XI found itself reeling at the sixth place and with virtually a mathematical chance to make it to the playoffs. Despite Tye stifling Mumbai Indians batsmen with his third four-wicket haul of the season and Rahul playing yet another blinder to put Kings XI on the cusp of victory, it was ironic that Kings XI ended up on the losing side.
Tye, however, had no hesitation in lamenting the reasons for the team's dismal performance in May. “It's bitterly disappointing that we did not win against Mumbai tonight. We figured that was probably about par score on that wicket. We had the firepower in our team to chase it down and we could not do it. Doesn't really matter if I take four for 16 or someone else takes four for 16,” a dejected Tye said, after the match.
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“It means obviously someone else has let you down and it's not a whole team effort. That is something that we've struggled for a lot this IPL. We haven't had enough boys standing up other than K.L. with the bat or myself and Mujeeb (Ur Rahman) with the ball.”
After a dream start to its campaign, winning five of the first seven games, Kings XI has been on s slump since a weeklong break it had towards the end of April. Its batsmen, including the likes of Chris Gayle, Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal, Yuvraj Singh and Manoj Tiwary have been woefully out of form. To add to that, Mujeeb's injury against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) hasn't helped the team either.
Tye refused to believe the long break resulted in a loss of momentum. “You can look at it and say we lost momentum after that break, but at the same time, we didn't have anyone else to stand up. You know, in the first few games we have K.L., Gayle, Karun who'd scored half-centuries or a century,” he said.
“However, if you look at it since the break, K.L. is the only batsman who has gone past fifty. As good as our bowling attack is....we haven't been putting up complete performance as a team, with both bat and the ball, and that sums up why we probably haven't won games lately.”
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