Kings XI Punjab skipper KL Rahul felt umpire Nitin Menon's controversial 'short run' call in a match against Delhi Capitals earlier in the season among other issues have resulted in the side's ouster from the tournament.
In the match that took place on September 20, the square leg umpire, as the giant screen showed later, had erred in his decision in the 19th over and that had resulted in the match going into a Super Over, which the Delhi franchise went on to win.
"If you look back at it , we had a lot of games in our pocket but we couldn't get over the line. We only have ourselves to blame. At the start of the tournament, that short run [call] has come back to bite us very hard. We all make mistakes and we have made a few this season. We need to accept it, learn from it and come back stronger," he said.
After a nine-wicket loss against the Chennai Super Kings on Sunday, Rahul accepted to being under a lot of pressure, having failed to put up a big score on the board. "We didn't bat really well. It was a big pressure game and we expected 180-190 on the board. Unfortunately, we couldn't soak in the pressure and get a big total."
The Karnataka batsman signed off saying he was really proud of how the team had shown signs of revival in the second half of the league stage, posting five consecutive wins coming on the back of five back-to-back defeats.
"We are disappointed but that's how IPL goes. We didn't have results going our way in the first half. The team still felt we were playing good cricket. We were patchy at times with the bowling and the batting didn't come together in the first half. We started doing well in the second half and I am really proud that we gave ourselves an opportunity to come into the top four."
KXIP's loss against CSK resulted in its exit from the Playoffs race.
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