IPL 2016: Kings XI Punjab captain David Miller skips post match ceremony

The Mumbai Indians convincingly beat Kings XI Punjab by 25 runs in yesterday’s IPL game, condeming the Mohali based franchise to their fourth loss in five games. It was another day to forget for the Kings. Having won the toss, skipper Miller put Mumbai in to bat. It was a decision he would soon regret as all his bowlers, barring Sandeep Sharma, were taken all over the park. The chief destroyers were Parthiv Patel and Ambati Rayadu who put on a 137 run partnership for the second wicket.

Read: Glenn Maxwell blames bowling and fielding performance for loss

Chasing 190, Punjab lost their openers Murali Vijay and Manan Vohra both early. There was a rebuilding job done by Shaun Marsh, who has displayed good form recently, and Glenn Maxwell, who scored his first 50 since 2014. Miller came in to bat with the score at 121/3 with 5 overs to spare and 69 runs to get. Having to go at nearly 14 runs an over from the time he got in, Miller soon lost his partner Maxwell at the other end. From that time on, it was a sinking ship, Miller the only warrior, fighting to get to 30 off 17 deliveries, with a strike rate of 176. While he might take joy from the fact that he finally found some runs, he decided not to appear for the post match presentation.

The reason for this is unknown at the time, as there has been no official word from the Kings XI franchise. However, there was one ball that smashed into his rib cage and that might be why Miller wasn’t seen at the ceremony. It was a slower ball, and Miller got through the shot too quickly. Kings XI coach Sanjay Bangar attended the ceremony in his place. Whether it was an injury or whether Miller was just too disappointed with another loss, is something we will have to wait and see.

At the post match presentation, Sanjay Bangar said, "We bowled pretty poorly on this ground, conceding 25 boundaries was too much. 190 on such a big outfield was always going to be challenging. We lost a few of the 50-50 battles, there is no excuse for a poor bowling performance. Marsh is batting in really good nick, Maxwell getting over the 10 run barrier, Miller getting a few hits, those are the positives for us. We have a break of 5 days to regroup. We'll come back fresh for the second phase of the tournament."

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma said, "It means a lot considering the fact that the last few games haven't gone the way we wanted it to. I'm very pleased for Parthiv, the partnership between Parthiv and Rayadu set the game up for us. 190 was quite a significant total on this wicket. There was a bit of pressure when Marsh and Maxwell were going, but playing with 5 genuine bowlers, we knew someone would step up and Southee was the man to do it. Bumrah and Mitch closed the game perfectly. All the games from here on are very important for us, the focus is going to be on each game now and we are waiting to go home and face KKR."

Man of the match Parthiv Patel said, “I didn't do too well in the previous 5 games, pretty glad personally to have had this innings today. The wicket was pretty dry, we decided that one of us have to stay till the 15th - 16th over. Hope to carry on the momentum."