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“I Hope We Are Playing Some Entertaining Cricket” – KL Rahul

Shruti Banerjee
Punjab Kings vs SRH

Photo Credit: (IPL)

KL Rahul led Punjab Kings bowlers showed a great performance and successfully restricted SunRisers Hyderabad and won the 37th game by 5 runs. Put in to bat first, Punjab could only manage 125 runs on the board with Markram top-scoring with 27.

For SRH, Holder claimed 3 wickets. While chasing, Wriddhiman Saha scored a valiant 31. But the middle-orders failed to contribute much before Holder stood up with the bat. He smashed an unbeaten 47 off 29 with 5 sixes. But his effort went in vain due to lack of support and SRH eventually lost the game.

Ravi Bishnoi claimed 3 wickets whereas Mohammed Shami picked up 2 for PBKS.

Jason Holder, who won the Player of the Match award, said: “Tough loss. At the halfway mark, needing 126, you obviously back yourselves to chase it. We probably left a little too much to get at the end although I did back myself to get those. The stage where I came in, I just had to go for it and it worked. Maybe that’s why it worked. Batters probably weren’t too committal earlier on. Five more games left, need to build some momentum for next season. Fans have been really passionate, we need to keep going for them.”

Punjab Kings captain, KL Rahul said: “I hope so, we are playing some entertaining cricket and have been doing for the last two or three years, but I’ll take the win. He (Holder) played exceedingly well. First with the ball, taking those two wickets in an over and then batted really well, on a track where it was difficult to play the big shots. We wanted to get another 20-30 more runs but we’ll take the win. It gives us a belief that no matter what the situation is, our bowlers can get the opposition out if we get a decent score. Shami to start of, bowled really well, getting two big batters in Warner and Williamson.

Made it easier for our spinners to settle into a nice line and length. Lesson for the batsmen would be to realise that it’s not a 160-170 surface, if we had built a few partnerships, we could have got to 140-150. He (Harpreet) has been good for us, he can do everything. Has finished some games for us, also gives us control with the ball, and great in the field. Everytime I go to him, he tells me ‘Paaji (Brother) don’t worry, I won’t leak runs’. That’s his attitude.”

“It has been a frustrating season” – Kane Williamson

Kane Williamson, the SRH captain said: “The bowling unit, fielding unit did a fantastic job. Certainly, the surface was a tough one. Required partnerships and we were certainly backing ourselves to get close. It took a brilliant individual performance in both halves from Jason Holder, especially with the bat to keep the match competitive. It’s (SRH) a proud franchise, frustrating season. We do need to look for areas to improve. We try to learn from the first half of the game. Punjab tried to come out attacking like it usually happens in T20s. But playing shots was challenging. For us it was about looking to build platforms. It was quite a challenge to pounce on them without losing wickets.The games come thick and fast. We need to come to the next game with fresh eyes and freedom. We will try and put in the best. Smart cricket needs to be played with different surfaces.”

Ravi Bishnoi, the Punjab youngster said: “Last game we lost by a close margin and this victory feels nice. IPL is like that (*chuckles* – talking about his team making a habit of last-ball thrillers). Last year as well we defended a similar target against SRH in similar conditions and that was the talk before the start of second innings from the captain and we had the belief. I was just thinking to bowl wicket-to-wicket and bowl it in the areas that was tough to target. It’s very important for us to win this match to stay in the contention and we were determined to do well.”

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