A butterfingered Punjab Kings paid the price for dropping five catches as it crashed out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after a defeat against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Despite playing at home and winning the toss, Kings failed to capitalise as they gave two lifelines to Virat Kohli early on in the innings and the superstar made the most of those reprieves to score a classy 92 and ensured RCB stayed alive in the playoffs race.
While Punjab Kings assistant coach Brad Haddin admitted that those dropped catches cost his team the game, RCB’s Cameron Green was of the opinion that an opponent team cannot afford to give Kohli so many chances.
ALSO READ | Punjab Kings knocked out: What went wrong for PBKS this season?
“The opposition team can’t give him that many chances. He will make you hurt, especially early in the innings - when he is trying to be aggressive. After a couple of drops, he played like he didn’t have anything to lose. He played like vintage Virat that we all know,” Green said on Thursday.
Talking about Kings’ tough day on the field, where the side not only dropped Kohli, but also provided a lifeline to Rajat Patidar, who went on to score yet another fifty, Haddin said, “100 percent we lost the match because of dropped catches. If we look through the game, we dropped two guys on a duck, and both of them scored big runs. That was where the game was lost. There was not too much difference in the batting and bowling of both teams. The catches we put down cost us the game.”
This was the 10th consecutive season that Punjab failed to reach the playoffs, whereas for RCB, there’s still hope. “Where we are at, we are kind of pushed in the corner and what we can really do is focus on the next game and win every game. Things don’t always go as per plan, especially in the IPL, and we are going to focus on the next game…,” Green said.
Comments
SHARE