Published: May 16, 2017, 08:00 AM (IST)
Edited: May 16, 2017, 12:09 AM (IST)
Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) came into the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 with a lot riding on their shoulder. From past horrors to unattained desires through a span of 10 years starting from 2007, the Preity Zinta co-owned Kings XI Punjab voyage has been nothing shot of a Bollywood masala movie. The 10th edition of the IPL was the perfect backdrop for Kings XI Punjab to raise and prove to the world that they are just not a name in the competition. I, Vishal Mehra along with CricketCountry’s in-house keyboard cruncher and stats guru Abhishek Kumar will be going through KXIP’s topsy-turvy journey in IPL 10 in a more script-like manner and numbers. IPL 2017: Kings XI Punjab’s (KXIP) marks out of 10
Auctions: KXIP took the more subdued approach and settled for Indian players. Leading the pack was Varon Aaron who was purchased for a whopping INR 2.5 crore, while much accomplished and two-time ICC World T20 winning captain Darren Sammy was snapped up for just INR 30 lakhs (says everything). Amongst other Indian recruits Thangarasu Natarajan led-charge along with Rahul Tewatia, Armaan Jaffer and Rinku Singh.
With shortage of batting power, KXIP went ahead to bring in Eoin Morgan and Martin Guptill as two of their eight international players. Matt Henry of New Zealand was purchased in the dying moments of the auction.
Injury: Skipper from the last season, Murali Vijay was ruled out for IPL 10 that interestingly saw KXIP pick up Ishant Sharma as a replacement player. Ishant went unsold in the option. With Vijay out the mix, KXIP went for the unpredictable Maxwell as their captain with the likes of Sammy, Morgan and Amla in the ranks. Maxwell who is known for his no nonsense approach in Sheffield Shield cricket was a refreshing change for many sitting outside.
Maxwell’s thinking fell in tune with Virender Sehwag, who was KXIP’s director of cricket operations. Sehwag along with K Sridhar and Mithun Manas looked like an able trio to get KXIP reach greater heights.
Tournament:
KXIP started the season with back-to-back wins against Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). In both matches it was their bowling that shone while the batting complemented against RCB in particular. KXIP seemed to get better with every passing game.
From the highs KXIP as usual slumped to lows against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Delhi Daredevils (DD). Both these matches exposed KXIP’ weakness going ahead. KKR exposed their bowling, while DD exploited their batting. Against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) it was a spirited show from Manan Vohra that kept his side in hunt making an eye pleasing 95. KXIP went on to lose the match by 5 runs. IPL 2017: Akshar Patel proving to be Kings XI Punjab’s man for all seasons
With all the losing around, one-man rose up like a shining star for KXIP – Hashim Amla. Amla who is known for his more classical and text book style of play reinvented himself and slammed his maiden T20 ton against Mumbai Indians; KXIP went on to lose that game as well.
Midway into the tournament KXIP had slumped to 4 defeats in the 7 games. That meant in order to qualify for the playoffs KXIP had to win 6 games at least out of the remaining seven.
|
Match |
Opponents |
Venue |
Result |
|
1 |
Rising Pune Supergiant |
Indore |
KXIP by 6 Wickets |
|
2 |
Royal Bangalore Challengers |
Indore |
KXIP by 8 Wickets |
|
3 |
Kolkata Knight Riders |
Cuttack |
KKR by 8 Wickets |
|
4 |
Delhi Daredevils |
Delhi |
DD by 51 Runs |
|
5 |
Sunrisers Hyderabad |
Hyderabad |
SRH by 5 Runs |
|
6 |
Mumbai Indians |
Indore |
MI by 8 Wickets |
|
7 |
Gujarat Lions |
Rajkot |
KXIP by 26 Runs |
Resurgence:
Desperately needing a win to stay alive KXIP suffered a narrow yet substantial defeat at the hands of SRH. KXIP from a position of power went into a position of submission in no time losing the game by 26 runs.
KXIP then inflicted havoc on DD to revenge their embarrassing 51-run loss earlier. DD bundled out for 67, winning the match by 10 wickets in the process. Already having psychological advantage over RCB, KXIP routed the home side for just 117 runs after themselves managing just 137 runs. Not the best of show by KXIP but a win for them nonetheless.
Riding high on teams’ confidence, Amla concocted his 2nd T20 ton in the match against an in-form Gujarat Lions. Lighting never strikes twice but sadly for Amla it did; KXIP lost by 6 wickets.
Shot at Playoffs:
KXIP needed a three straight win to make to the IPL Playoffs.
KXIP continued to bat poorly across the season; against KKR it was no differentThey put up 167 and their bowlers, the troika of Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma and Rahul Tewatia restricted KKR to 157/6.
One down, two to go
Cometh MI, KXIP stalwarts stood up. Wriddhiman Saha asked to open, slammed a 93 not out and was ably supported by Marsh, Maxwell and Guptill as KXIP ended up recording their highest IPL total — 230 for 3.
MI not to be left behind replied with equal might with the bat. Needing just 23 from 12 and with Pollard in the middle odds were in favour of MI, but Sandeep and Mohit had other plans.
0,1,2,2,1wd, 1,0 read the penultimate over by Sandeep who was taken to the cleaners earlier. Mohit a veteran of sorts in the IPL saved 16 runs in the final over despite getting smacked for a six on the second ball. Mohit pulled out his arsenal of tricks using the knuckle ball to good affect. KXIP win by 7 runs.
Virtual Quarterfinal:
KXIP needed one more win and their way to the playoffs would have been assured. KXIP had defeated RPS earlier and having notched up a win against table-toppers MI, the former had momentum with them. RPS invited KXIP to bat, a reason Maxwell believes, the side lost. From losing Guptill on the very first ball to Maxwell getting out to a irresponsible shot first-ball everything went horribly wrong for Punjab. Lack of application and utter brilliance of their opponents saw KXIP get out for 73, their lowest ever in IPL.
RPS without much fuzz went on to attain the coveted playoff spot and finish at No.2 at the expense of KXIP’s poor show.
|
Match |
Opponents |
Venue |
Result |
|
8 |
Sunrisers Hyderabad |
Mohali |
SRH by 26 Runs |
|
9 |
Delhi Daredevils |
Mohali |
KXIP by 10 Wickets |
|
10 |
Royal Bangalore Challengers |
Bengaluru |
KXIP by 19 Runs |
|
11 |
Gujarat Lions |
Mohali |
GL by 6 Wickets |
|
12 |
Kolkata Knight Riders |
Mohali |
KXIP by 14 Runs |
|
13 |
Mumbai Indians |
Mumbai |
KXIP by 7 Runs |
|
14 |
Rising Pune Supergiant |
Pune |
RPS by 9 Wickets |
With this KXIP finished at No.5 in the points table as opposed to No. 8, that they had attained in the last two seasons. Sehwag, who was the helm of affairs this season did not take the loss against RPS lightly and came down hard on its foreign players namely, Maxwell.
“We always knew that when Maxwell fires, then he can win the match on his own,” Sehwag said. “But he didn’t fire in most games. That is a big disappointment, especially since he is experienced, having played for Australia’s Test and ODI teams. He didn’t take the responsibility as a captain and didn’t perform for Kings XI Punjab, he concluded.
KXIP did blew too cold and less hot in the tournament but just blaming the captain for a poor outing shows Sehwag has a lot to learn about man management going ahead if he want to coach/ mentor a team.
It is not just one individual that is too be blame but it is a collective botch. For KXIP the amalgamation of different minds, skill-set and talent did have just not turned out to be the most fruitful.
Stats for 2017:
|
Highest score for KXIP In 2017 |
|||
| Team | Score | Versus | Venue |
| KXIP | 230/3 | MI | Mumbai |
| KXIP | 198/4 | MI | Indore |
| KXIP | 189/3 | GL | Mohali |
| KXIP | 188/7 | GL | Rajkot |
| KXIP | 181/9 | SRH | Chandigarh |
|
Highest score for KXIP In 2017 |
|||
| Team | Score | Versus | Venue |
| KXIP | 230/3 | MI | Mumbai |
| KXIP | 198/4 | MI | Indore |
| KXIP | 189/3 | GL | Mohali |
| KXIP | 188/7 | GL | Rajkot |
| KXIP | 181/9 | SRH | Chandigarh |
|
Most runs in 2017 |
|||||||
|
Player |
Mat |
Runs |
HS |
Ave |
SR |
100 |
50 |
| HashimAmla |
10 |
420 |
104* |
60 |
145.83 |
2 |
2 |
| Glenn Maxwell |
14 |
310 |
47 |
31 |
173.18 |
0 |
0 |
| Shaun Marsh |
9 |
264 |
84 |
33 |
136.08 |
0 |
2 |
| WriddhimanSaha |
14 |
234 |
93* |
23.4 |
125.13 |
0 |
1 |
| MananVohra |
11 |
229 |
95 |
25.44 |
144.02 |
0 |
1 |
| Akshar Patel |
14 |
227 |
44 |
28.37 |
140.12 |
0 |
0 |
| Martin Guptill |
7 |
132 |
50* |
22 |
150 |
0 |
1 |
| David Miller |
5 |
83 |
30* |
27.66 |
103.75 |
0 |
0 |
| Eoin Morgan |
4 |
65 |
26 |
16.25 |
104.83 |
0 |
0 |
| Mohit Sharma |
14 |
51 |
13 |
8.5 |
102 |
0 |
0 |
|
Most wickets in 2017 |
||||||
|
Player |
Mat |
Overs |
Runs |
Wkts |
Ave |
Econ |
| Sandeep Sharma |
13 |
48 |
398 |
17 |
23.41 |
8.29 |
| Akshar Patel |
14 |
48 |
362 |
15 |
24.13 |
7.54 |
| Mohit Sharma |
14 |
45.4 |
410 |
13 |
31.53 |
8.97 |
| Glenn Maxwell |
14 |
19 |
125 |
7 |
17.85 |
6.57 |
| Varon Aaron |
6 |
20 |
163 |
7 |
23.28 |
8.15 |
| KC Cariappa |
4 |
15 |
127 |
4 |
31.75 |
8.46 |
| Rahul Tewatia |
3 |
9 |
49 |
3 |
16.33 |
5.44 |
| Marcus Stoinis |
5 |
10.3 |
110 |
2 |
55 |
10.47 |
| T Natarajan |
6 |
12.4 |
115 |
2 |
57.5 |
9.07 |
| Swapnil Singh |
4 |
7 |
61 |
1 |
61 |
8.71 |
| Matt Henry |
2 |
5 |
71 |
1 |
71 |
14.2 TRENDING NOW |
Going ahead into the 11th IPL season, fans would see a complete overhaul of KXIP; from its team management to players to owners but one thing is of a certainty that it will also remain one of the most highly talked about team in the IPL for many seasons to come.
