Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) captain, skipper KL Rahul believes that the “short run” that played an important role in the opening IPL loss to Delhi Capitals (DC) immensely affected their playoffs chances inspite of their second comeback in the tournament. Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) halted on 12 points after losing their last game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) after winning five games. “It is disappointing. We had a lot of games in our pockets and we couldn’t get over the line and we only have ourselves to blame. That short run game too (against Delhi Capitals on September 20), looks like it has come back to bite us,” Rahul said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
During the match, the TV footage showed that square leg umpire Menon has erred in calling Chris Jordan for a “short run” in the third ball of the 19th over which was bowled by Kagiso Rabada. Menon signalled that Chris Jordan has not completed the run and only one run was added to Mayank Agarwal and the team’s total.
“It is as simple as that. We didn’t bat really well. Big pressure game, we expected 180-190. We couldn’t soak in the pressure. We didn’t have the results going our way in the first half,” Rahul disappointingly said after the match.
KL Rahul, who exited the tournament with 670 runs from 14 games, said that there were times when they were patchy with both batting and bowling. “The team still felt like we were playing good cricket. We were patchy. The bowling and batting wasn’t coming together in the first half, proud that we did it in the second half. Lots to be proud of as a team, a lot of could have been”.
“It does hurt. We have done really well to give ourselves a chance to qualify and there is lot to be proud of as a team. Would have been great if we had one more victory and qualify but nevertheless we did really well as a team. It will hurt for a little while, need to take the learning and comeback stronger next year,” KL Rahul said.
Speaking of what went wrong with the team on Sunday, “It was good wicket but we couldn’t really get partnerships going. In the first six with me and Mayank getting 50, we should have capitalised and got ourselves a bigger target. The way Deepak (Hooda) batted at the end gave us a chance. In a big game like this a big total would have been nice to defend,” he said.
KL Rahul is really hurt with his team missing out on the qualification from the playoffs.
