IPL 2021: “The messaging was very clear that we had to finish in 19 overs” – PBKS coach Anil Kumble expresses disappointment

Punjab Kings (PBKS) head coach Anil Kumble conceded that the franchise is repeatedly bottling games from winning positions. KL Rahul’s side lost yet another winning plot to eventually go down to the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 2 runs in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday.

With just 7 runs needed off the final 12 balls, and with 8 wickets remaining, PBKS failed to rotate strike in the face of some quality death bowling by Mustafizur Rahman and Kartik Tyagi. Asked if the batters could have tried something different - maybe like a scoop - Anil Kumble admitted dot balls cost them the game.

“As batters, they certainly know what their scoring shots are, it’s not about just the scoop. It also boils down to that particular batter. When you have 8 runs off 12 balls, I don’t think we needed a scoop, all it needed was a bit of hitting, and even if someone got out, the next batter would at least get 5 or 6 balls to get those runs."

“When it goes to the last couple of balls, it becomes really hard...the messaging was very clear that we had to finish in 19 overs, but unfortunately that didn’t happen today,” the PBKS chief said in response to Sportskeeda’s question during the post-match press conference.

Chasing 186 for victory, Nicholas Pooran (32 off 22) and debutant Aiden Markram (26* off 20) seemed set to comfortably take PBKS over the line. But after left-armer Mustafizur conceded just 4 runs in the penultimate over, 20-year-old Tyagi put on an exhibition of outside-off-stump yorkers to give away just a solitary run and claim two wickets.

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“It’s become a pattern, that’s something we need to discuss” – Anil Kumble on PBKS' struggles

PBKS slipped to seventh in the points table, with just 3 wins from 9 games. Anil Kumble stated that the thinktank will conduct a post-mortem on their repeated failures to close games. He further harped on the importance of not letting this loss negatively impact their remaining five matches.

“Yes it’s become a pattern, that’s something we need to discuss and sort out. We have five more games, but again, we don’t want to get bogged down by this defeat. It’s certainly a difficult pill to swallow,” the legendary leg-spinner added.

Mohali-based PBKS will play next against bottom-placed SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Sharjah on Saturday.

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