IPL 2019: 3 Reasons why KXIP lost to KKR

Kings XI Punjab lost to Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday and also lost their chance to make it into the playoffs. Kings XI was put under pressure since the start as they lost both their openers, Gayle and Rahul, for mere 22 runs. Even after that KXIP managed to put up a good total of 183 for the loss of six wickets, thanks to Sam Curran's quick-fire 55, they failed to defend the target.

Kolkata Knight Riders openers, Chris Lynn and Shubman Gill, took on the Punjab bowlers from the start scoring 65 runs in the first six overs. Gill went on to score an unbeaten 65 off 49 balls and made sure that his team won the match.

With this loss, KXIP are virtually out of the playoffs. Now, let's have a look at three reasons why Kings XI Punjab lost to KKR.

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#1 Early fall of Gayle and Rahul

As the season has progressed, it was clear that Kings XI Punjab relied a lot on their opening duo of Chris Gayle and KL Rahul for runs. Though they were good all through the season, they were dismissed early against KKR. KL Rahul was the first one to go as he was deceived by Warrier's knuckle bowl and gave an easy catch to Chris Lynn at mid-on. He was soon followed by Gayle who got out playing a big shot to deep mid-wicket. Both the openers were gone for 22 runs in the first four overs.

#2 Lack of a quality batsman in the middle order

Kings XI Punjab has been changing their playing XI in almost every game. On Friday against KKR, they decided to play Andrew Tye for David Miller who had not been consistent so far and this did not go their way as Tye went for 41 runs in three overs. Though Pooran came good, with the one less proper batsman in the middle order, they fell short by 10-20 runs on a good batting wicket.

#3 KXIP bowlers expensive in the power play overs, never allowed to control the game

KXIP bowlers have been going for a lot of runs throughout the tournament. Teams have managed to score over 170 in almost every match against them. The main reason behind this is that bowlers have not been able to control the run flow of the oppositions in the powerplays. On Friday against KKR, they gave 65 runs in six overs for only one wicket. Most of the bowlers were inconsistent with their line and length, which made batting easy for the KKR batsmen.