Their IPL play-off hopes severely dented, Kings XI Punjab captain Glenn Maxwell termed the six- wicket defeat against Gujarat Lions today as “pretty devastating”. Maxwell put the blame of the defeat on the team’s horrendous fielding effort, saying the dropped catches hurt the team badly. “Pretty devastating,” Maxwell said after the loss.
“189 was enough, the bowlers and fielders let us down. We dropped three crucial catches. We haven’t won a heap of games in a row. We’ve had to scrap. Unfortunately, we’ll lose Hashim and David Miller now, and we’ll have to look deep in our reserves and regroup,” he added.
Winning skipper Suresh Raina said the win is a big morale booster for the youngsters of the team what if they have already crashed out of the play-off race.
“We had too many injuries (this year). (But) still a good season for the youngsters,” he said. He lauded openers Dwayne Smith and Ishan Kishan for setting the platform for the comfortable win. “Smithy (Smith) and Ishan gave us the platform and later on me and DK (Dinesh Karthi) had a good partnership. I think it was about six-over partnerships.
“Sandy (Sandeep Sharma) and Mohit (Sharma) bowled brilliantly in between, but I and DK rotated the strike
really well. When you’re chasing 190, you need a good start, and that’s what we’ve had in the last couple of matches,” he said.
Man-of-the-match, Smith, who struck a whirlwind 74 up the order, said overall he was disappointed with his performances this season. “(I’s) still disappointed about my performances over the past games. I think my natural game is like that, it was just about staying out there as long as possible, and if I do that we’ll stay in front of the run rate,” he said.
“I knew once I stay out there, runs will come for sure. We’re already out of the tournament, so we can’t worry about that, we just need to keep going on and look to damage some other teams as well,” Smith signed off.
