नवीनतम
Pitch dilemma for Punjab Kings against upbeat KKR
NEW DELHI [Maha Media]: A beleaguered Punjab Kings need to pick up pieces after being blown away by ‘tornado’ Abhishek Sharma as they face yet another challenging opposition in Kolkata Knight Riders, here Tuesday.
It is a rarity that a team loses after putting on board a mammoth score like 245 but Punjab Kings had to endure a hard-todigest defeat due to Abhishek Sharma’s whirlwind knock of 141 off just 55 balls in their previous match against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
A helpless Shreyas Iyer, who himself smashed a 36-ball 82, could only laugh at the end of the match after watching his bowlers torn to shreds by Abhishek’s blazing blade. The carnage unfolded in Hyderabad, where the flat Uppal track resembles a ‘national highway’ where no total is safe.
On Tuesday, though, Punjab will play at their home in Mullanpur where the pitch is also conducive for batters and the team management needs to decide what kind of conditions it would prefer going forward. The bowling unit’s confidence must have been shaken, especially of the two spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Glenn Maxwell, who gave away 96 runs in seven overs between them.
If Punjab go for a flat deck, there is no guarantee that the bowling unit can defend anything in the 220 range, especially when KKR have the likes of Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, and Venkatesh Iyer in their rank.
