KKR bottled an easy chase of 112 runs against PBKS and they won the match by 16 runs at Mullanpur. Their middle order suffered a massive batting collapse, and they had no answer against Yuzvendra Chahal’s spin. Andre Russell tried his best but couldn’t finish the game for KKR. Punjab Kings played like a real “king”. Let’s look at the key reasons for KKR’s defeat.
Yuzvendra Chahal’s spin
KKR was in a better position to win the match when they were at 60/2 in 7 overs. Yuzvendra Chahal came to bowl his first over by then. He brought PBKS back into the game. He gave just 12 runs and picked 4 crucial wickets in the middle in his first 3 overs.
Andre Russell managed to counter-attack him in his last over by smashing 16 runs of it. Chahal ended his spell with 4-28-4. He delivered a game changing spell and won the match for his team. he flighted the ball slow through the air and decieved the batters.
He was awarded the man of the match award as well.
Poor shot selection
Some of the shots played by KKR batters yesterday were not on par. They play irresponsible shots irrelevant to the situation. Angkrish Raguvanshi tried to play a square drive against Chahal ( 9.1 ) and landed it in the hands of the point. Venkatesh Iyer tried to sweep against Maxwell ( 10.4 ) and got the ball in his pads.
Ramandeep Singh tried to sweep the first ball he faced from Chahal ( 11.4 ) and was caught in the slips. Rahane played a sweep shot against Chahal ( 7.4 ) and missed it, getting it on his pads. The umpire gave out. They played all these high-risk shots chasing a low total.
Lack of game awareness
KKR batters lacked game awareness at many moments. It all started from the Captain Rahane.He was dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal in the 8th over. He tried for a sweep shot and got hit in his pads, was given out for LBW.
But the ball was missing the stumps and the impact was outside the off-stump. Even the non-striker Angkrish Raghuvanshi was convincing him to go for the review, but Rahane felt that was out and he walked back. That was the turning point of the game.
The pitch gave some assistance to the spinners. KKR spinners Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy bowled well in the first innings. PBKS played with only one frontline spinner, Yuzvendra Chahal. If KKR batters didn’t lose their wickets to Chahal, then there was no chance for Punjab to come back into the game. But KKR batters missed a trick and went for high-risk shots against him and lost their wickets.
After Chahal’s third over, KKR were 77/7 in 12 overs. Jansen bowled the 13th over and Harshit Rana was in strike. His job was to give the strike to Russell. But he took a double in the first ball. He faced the remaining deliveries of Jansen and eventually lost his wicket in the 5th ball of the 13th over. Jansen troubled him with his pace.
Same story with Vaibhav Arora. He was on strike in the 15th over, and he tried to just defend all six balls rather than pushing for a quick single to get Russell back in the strike. He survived 5 balls, but Arshdeep had him in the last ball.
Russell, who didn’t get struck for a long time, got out on the first ball he faced from Jansen in the next over 16th over. Losing these small moments costed the match for KKR. There were ample 29 balls left in the match & 17 runs to win but Russell wanted to win the match and perhaps boost the NRR but it didn’t happen.
Also Read:Â PBKS vs KKR: PBKS Defend Lowest IPL Total As KKR Crumble In Stunning Collapse