Punjab Kings stand-in skipper Sam Curran admitted they were not good enough with the bat after their 24-run loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali on Thursday. Curran was happy with his bowling performance as they had restricted the visitors to 174 runs after electing to field first.
Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis added 137 runs for the opening stand but the Punjab bowlers didn’t allow the opposition’s openers to run away with the game. Subsequently, despite a solid start by Kohli and Faf, RCB could not finish on a high as they managed only 44 runs in the last five overs.
Rahul Chahar and Sam Curran bowled economical spells for the home team, conceding only 51 runs in the eight overs they bowled collectively.
On the other hand, Punjab Kings lost four wickets in the PowerPlay overs and could only manage 49 runs in the first six, which put them under the cosh. Prabhsimran Singh and Jitesh Sharma scored 46 and 41 runs respectively but the other batters failed to contribute.
Mohammed Siraj was the chief destroyer as the RCB pack leader scalped four wickets and conceded only 21 runs in his quota of four overs.
Sam Curran said in the post-match presentation, “I thought we bowled well as a group. Credit to Faf and Virat for the way they played, but I think we didn’t let them get away, but we were not good enough with the bat. They bowled well, we lost far too many wickets, a couple of run-outs as well. The rain was a factor as well. The wicket was good today, we’ll probably look back at a couple of dismissals and regret, but we’ll come back on Saturday. We are playing in Mumbai on Saturday, it’s a good wicket out there and we’re excited to play over there.”
PBKS would have been disappointed with their batting effort as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. It wasn’t the easiest of pitches to bat on but the home team should have shown more application.
Punjab has also missed the services of their full-time captain Shikhar Dhawan in the last couple of matches due to an injury. PBKS will next face Mumbai Indians on Saturday at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
