Kings XI Punjab captain Ravichandran Ashwin revealed that Chris Gayle “twisted his back” during the three-wicket loss to Mumbai Indians in an IPL game which required his side to be “steelier and smarter” than what it was.
Kings XI Punjab’s coaching staff Sridharan Sriram said his condition will be monitored for the next couple of days. “He felt a twitch in the back. We got to assess and monitor him over the next couple of days,” he said.
In another injury worry for KXIP, Ashwin said medium pacer Ankit Rajpoot, who went for 52 runs in his four overs yielding just one wicket, has a niggle too.
“He (Ankit Rajpoot) injured his finger in the first over. It was a big bonus that we got three overs from him in the powerplay. We were a bit up and down with our fielding and catching,” Ashwin said assessing the team’s performance after seven matches, four of them wins.
Ashwin felt the team lost momentum after a great start but conceded that Pollard was the major difference between the two sides.
“We were about 10s for 10-12 overs and then we lost a little momentum while batting which I feel was crucial for us. I thought we pretty good as a bowling unit in bits and pieces,” he reflected.
“At the end of the day Pollard batted beautifully and took the game away from us...We could have been a little more steelier and smarter with our plans,” he said.
READ | Pollard heroics help Mumbai clinch a humdinger
Put in to bat, KL Rahul’s unbeaten century guided the Kings XI Punjab to 197-4 and Sriram is happy with the total. “185-190 was on a par on this wicket. We were happy with what we got,” he said.
“Probably if we would have been sharper, we would have ended up on the right side. I think it was a defendable total. It was just about par. It is a hard defending ground,” Ashwin said when asked whether 197 was a big enough total.
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