Published: Apr 25, 2019, 12:59 AM (IST)
Edited: Apr 25, 2019, 12:59 AM (IST)
Ravichandran Ashwin’s Kings XI Punjab succumbed to their sixth defeat in 11 games in IPL 2019, losing to Royal Challengers Bangalore by 17 runs in Match 42 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, thus making it their second loss in a row and fifth overall playing away from home.
Yey, skipper Ashwin believes that the team can turnaround things and it is just a matter of one match they need to get going.
“It’s all about getting one win together and we can get on a roll like RCB won three in a row now, so it’s all about getting one win and then we go back home and then we probably try to win a couple on the trot,” said Ashwin during the post-match chat.
Chasing a total of 203 to win, KXIP had a good start where ahead in the game for a brief while but lost out on the key moments, something Ashwin feels has been his team’s achilles heel in their last few games. SCORECARD: RCB vs KXIP
“There can be so many places where I thought we lost the game, but honestly in a T20 game it’s all about winning those pressure moments which we have not been able to win in the last few games. HIGHLIGHTS: RCB vs KXIP
“If we had actually held onto those crunch moments, we might have had a couple of more points or probably four points but that’s that, we weren’t able to close it out and we got some experience in the middle order couldn’t really close it out in the crucial moments today.” he said.
Despite seeming to have lost steam as the business end of the tournament nears, Ashwin backed his core group to deliver the goods, but also highlighted a couple areas that needs improvement.
“It’s very important to keep trust in the players. We held onto giving players enough opportunities to try and come out on trumps. It’s important to back the players. In all the eleven games we played to be brutally honest, we haven’t been outplayed by any opposition which is a great positive for us. The one area we could really work on is the powerplay and the back-end finishing,” he added.
