Kings XI Punjab lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 45 runs on Monday, 30 April at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.
Despite KL Rahul’s vailant 79 off 56 deliveries, Hyderabad’s bowling proved a little too much to handle for the Kings and they eventually fell well short of the target.
Speaking to the media after the match KL Rahul said:
“Look, 200 plus scores have become pretty common in T-20 games so it was definitely chaseable. But with the kind of start they got, i thought we would be chasing around 230-240. But we still pulled things back nicely in the middle phase and obviously if we stitched a few more partnerships early on, 200 wasn’t far away.”
On being asked that if there was any specific plan throughout the innings, KL Rahul said that one can’t always get a good start and has to make it up later in such a case.
“The plan is always for me or Chris to bat as deep as possible, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t play your shots. I tried to hit a few shots but some didn’t come off , some went for the boundary, and some to the fielders. You can’t always get to an amazing start, but once you are set, you need to make that count. I know if i take my time, i can make it up later”KL Rahul, KXIP
Speaking about Mujeeb Ur Rahman’s performance, the opener said that no bowler wants to give away runs and no batsman wants to give away his wicket, just the T-20 cricket is unpredictable.
“Obviously if anybody goes for this many runs, that individual will be disappointed. No bowler wants to come here and give runs and no batsmen want to give away his wicket. Its just that sometimes in T-20 cricket it’s not your day. Even the best of the bowlers can go for runs. Today was the first day when he went for that many runs, other than that he has done extremely well for us.”KL Rahul, KXIP
When asked that whether they could have gone with some other bowler, the Karnataka lad said
“When you are playing with only 5 bowlers, you have to bowl him. There are few injuries in the team so that doesn’t allow us to play an all-rounder. So when you play five full time bowlers, you expect them deliver but sometimes that doesn’t happen and you move on.”
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