In the end, a calm descended in the Kings XI Punjab camp. A calm that takes over when there is an air of resigned acceptance of the turn of events. For the second year running, they were unable to sustain their early burst in the second half of the Vivo Indian Premier League and moved closer to exiting the race for the play-off berths.
The seven-wicket defeat by Kolkata Knight Riders on their home turf in Mohali more or less ended their campaign with only Sunday’s game against table toppers Chennai Super Kings left to be played. They looked back and realised that they lost Friday’s game in the two power-play spells in either innings, their batsmen not scoring enough and their bowlers losing to Chris Lynn.
It was the one game that cried out for Rahul and Gayle to fire in unison and it was a game in which neither clicked, much to Kings XI Punjab’s misery. The home side sought to bounce back and finished with a strike rate of just over 9 runs an over but that was never enough, especially with the pitch continuing to play true till the very end.
Kings XI Punjab would have felt let down by the overseas bowlers, Andrew Tye and Sam Curran, but it really was the top-order batsmen who did not show up on Friday. KL Rahul (520 runs in 12 games before this) and Chris Gayle (448) produced just 16 runs between them in the crunch game. Mayank Agarwal, who has been inconsistent, got another start but did not build on it.
Both openers fell to mistimed strokes off the bowling of Sandeep Warrier. Rahul, easily the bulwark of Kings XI Punjab batting this season, chipped a slower delivery to wide mid-on where Chris Lynn took a good catch. And in Sandeep Warrier’s next over, Gayle played an awkward pull-flick to the fielder at square-leg.
On a belter of a track, it was the Kings XI batsmen’s responsibility to post a score that would have been beyond the batting might of the visiting team. And with Gayle pottering around at a-run-a-ball pace in the early overs, it was apparent that they would not be able to mount a huge total unless a key batsman stayed on till the end.
Had Nicholas Pooran not taken charge in the middle and Sam Curran in the end, Kings XI Punjab would not have even had a par-score to bowl with. Their knocks sandwiched Mandeep Singh’s struggle as a middle-order batsman one more time. He was unable to get very many boundary hits during his innings.
The left-handed Trinidadian Nicholas Pooran, who was bought at the auction with great expectations and after a fierce bidding battle with Royal Challengers Bangalore, played his best knock in six games. But even he was guilty of frittering his wicket away, pulling a rank long hop from Nitish Rana down the deep mid-wicket fielder’s throat.
Curran, the other player over whom Kings XI Punjab had battled hard with during the IPL Players Auction, also played his best innings in the league. It was only the second time that he reached double figures but it was the knock which he showed his capabilities and how much his team missed them earlier in the season.
As their luck would have it, Kings XI Punjab were at the receiving end in the power-play overs as second time in the night when Kolkata Knight Riders set about chasing 184 for victory. Lynn caned Arshdeep Singh, R Ashwin and Andrew Tye so much that even though he fell to the last ball of the sixth over, he had made things easy for the other batsmen.
It needed at least one of the Kings XI Punjab attack to bowl out of his skin. Young Shubman Gill gave the bowlers no chance as he anchored the chase with the maturity of a seasoned professional. The one opportunity that Andre Russell gave the home side popped out of Mayank Agarwal’s hands to the boundary marker for a six.
Kings XI Punjab’s journey in 2019 has been quite similar to last year. But unlike last season when the Australian paceman Andrew Tye was such an integral part of the bowling, leading the race for the Purple Cap, he played guest appearances, taking just three wickets in as many games this time. And ‘mystery spinner’ Mujeeb Ur Rahman’s diminishing returns kept him out of many games.
Indeed, on a pitch that pulled the bowlers’ teeth out, it was the Kings XI Punjab top order batsmen who could have given their own attack some protection with a bigger score than they managed in the end despite Sam Curran’s active work in the backend of their own innings. But that should have warned them that the Kolkata Knight Riders batsmen could dish out such treatment, too.
Once Ashwin had decided to let 20-year-old Arshdeep Singh bowl two overs in the power-play, it was apparent that the Kings XI Punjab fans would have to hope for either a miracle or for the game to come to a quick finish. As Kolkata Knight Riders completed the formalities with two overs to spare, it was clear that a resigned acceptance and a calm would envelop R Ashwin and his team.
