It has been a roller coaster ride for Kings XI Punjab so far in the current season of IPL. This continued on Wednesday as they lost a thriller against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium.
Having batted first KXIP scored 197 in 20 overs. MI started the chase slowly but stand-in skipper Kieron Pollard (83 off 31 balls) went bonkers later. KXIP dismissed Pollard at a crunch situation but couldn’t prevent the home side to steal the victory in the last ball.
Apart from the disappointing loss, KXIP has other concerns related to injuries. During the game against MI, KXIP’s star player Chris Gayle twisted his back. Later KXIP skipper Ashwin revealed that their pacer Ankit Rajpoot too has a niggle.
Ankit bowled the last over unsuccessfully, despite coming back and taking Pollard’s wicket. He also produced a wink at a tense moment but failed to stop MI from taking the winning runs in the final delivery.
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Ashwin reveals Rajpoot’s injury
“He (Ankit Rajpoot) injured his finger in the first over. It was a big bonus that we got three overs from him in the powerplay. We were a bit up and down with our fielding and catching,” Ashwin said.
This was the team’s third loss in seven matches so far. Rajpoot has played three games in this season and has taken three wickets at an average of above 35.
In Mohali last month KXIP defeated MI by 8 wickets but this time they couldn’t repeat the same thing. KL Rahul scored his first IPL century (100 not out in 64 balls), but that wasn’t enough at the end.
Even Gayle showed his power as he scored 63 off 36 balls with the help of 7 sixes. But everything went under the shadow because of Pollard. He stepped in as the captain in place of injured Rohit Sharma and grabbed the Man of the Match award. KXIP will next play against RCB in Mohali on April 13.