We are Slowly Coming Together as a Team, Believes KL Rahul

1. We are Slowly Coming Together as a Team, Believes KL Rahul Punjab Kings’ captain KL Rahul applauded his team after they registered a win over five-time champions Mumbai Indians by nine wickets at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Friday. After electing to bowl first, Punjab bowlers restricted Mumbai Indians within 131/6 despite having a powerful batting line-up. Rahul then led from the front with a stunning performance, remaining unbeaten on 60 off 52 balls as well. The win also helped them to register their second win of the tournament after facing three consecutive losses. “We don’t wanna get too ahead of ourselves, we’re slowly coming together as a team,” said KL Rahul during the post-match presentation. He went on to praise the new players who have stepped up. PBKS added the young leggie Ravi Bishnoi and he returned with 2/21 from his four overs. Mohammad Shami too picked up two wickets in his four overs whereas Deepak Hooda and Arshdeep took one wicket apiece.

2. “We add new names every year and we’ve to be patient. Hooda has been playing really well, Shahrukh’s taken his opportunities, and Bishnoi today. Ravi’s been working real hard with Anil bhai, there were a few things he had to correct, and he’s worked really hard and he’s held his composure against a solid batting line-up,” said Rahul. On a tricky Chepauk wicket, Mumbai failed to score quickly and couldn’t recover from a slow start that saw them struggling at 26/2 in seven overs. Skipper Rohit Sharma tried his best and made 63 off 52, but got out in the 18th over, trying to accelerate the score. Hardik Pandya once again failed to score big, managing just one while Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya also failed to contribute with the bat. “Me and coach did have a long chat about batting second, I felt that the wicket was sticky and the first few games we’ve batted and felt that the bowlers were always under pressure. I felt it was important that bowlers get to bowl in those conditions and we heard that there was a lot of dew. So I felt like it can ease up and come on better –that didn’t happen, but we knew what to chase and that helped. The dry ball did play a big part, it just started ripping. When that happens it gets real hard to even get singles. But it was good of Chris, he figured out who to target, that’s the benefitof having someone like him,” added Rahul. You can catch Match Prediction, IPL prediction, Live Cricket Score on Cricadium