Published: Apr 18, 2017, 10:34 AM (IST)
Edited: Apr 18, 2017, 10:42 AM (IST)
Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) went down to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 5 runs in Indian Premier League (IPL) match 19 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Uppal, Hyderabad on Monday. For them, it was a one-man show, with opener Manan Vohra slamming a classy 95 off just 50 balls. However, the knock, which deserved to be on the winning side, went in vain as no other KXIP batsman supported the youngster. Vohra, in fact, outscored the second highest individual scorer in the innings Eoin Morgan (13) by 82 runs, which pretty much sums up the reason behind KXIP’s loss. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kings XI Punjab – Match 19
At the presentation ceremony, KXIP skipper Glenn Maxwell praised Vohra but at the same time, rued the lack of support from other batsmen, which caused his side the loss, “It was an outstanding game. Manan Vohra batted superbly but unfortunately he did not have much of help from the rest of us. The tail took it a lot closer. I thought 160 was chasable but we gave away 10-15 runs too many at the end. We did a lot of things well in the middle but lost it a bit towards the end.”
Maxwell said it was unfortunate Vohra’s innings ended on the losing side, “To play an innings like Manan did for the losing side is criminal I suppose. It was an innings that was coming, he kept getting 20s and 30s earlier for us and was slightly frustrated but we knew he could score big.” Maxwell also said that his side was prepared to take on Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rashid Khan, but eventually failed against the former.
“We expected Bhuvi to swing the ball around but we didn’t expect the wicket to be as up and down as it was. We knew it was two bowlers Rashid and Bhuvi we had to be wary of. I thought we played Rashid well though a majority of it was done by Vohra. We wanted to be ahead of the scoring rate and if we could have got 60 in the powerplay, it would make it easier for the rest of them,” he said. Commenting on his own performance, Maxwell said, “I let myself down as well with the batting but the way the guys scrapped was brilliant. Hopefully we could keep doing it ahead as well.”
