After Punjab Kings suffered a 56-run defeat against Lucknow Super Giants in Mohali on April 28th, the team’s batting coach, Wasim Jaffer, showed support for their bowlers. Despite the visitors achieving the second highest IPL total of all time, Jaffer did not dwell on the bowling performance.
Wasim Jaffer acknowledged that Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh, and Sam Curran, the lead seamers, had given away 144 runs in 11 overs, but Wasim Jaffer chose not to overanalyze the situation.
“Don’t think there are any serious concerns (about the bowling attack) because they had thrice defended scores in tough conditions.” “Be it against Mumbai or Rajasthan, even in the earlier Kolkata game. The bowling unit has always performed for us this season. Today was one of those days when everything clicked for the opposition and we were a bit clueless. Our bowlers will come back strong,” Said Jaffer in the post-match press conference.
Lucknow Super Giants displayed a ruthless performance with the bat, as Kyle Mayers set the tempo right from the start, scoring 74 runs in the PowerPlay. Ayush Badoni, along with Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran, continued the aggressive intent, ensuring that there was no slowing down. Although the pitch was excellent for batting, Wasim Jaffer acknowledges that the bowlers could have executed their plans better.
“Perhaps we could have gone to Plan B a bit more. Like using the slower balls a lot more and using the longer boundary consistently. They (LSG) did this a lot more effectively and it worked for them. But again, most of their shots were clearing the boundary quite easily, so we have to give them credit for that.”
Although teams batting first had won eight of the last 10 games, Shikhar Dhawan’s decision to bowl at the toss appeared flawed in hindsight. However, Wasim Jaffer defended his skipper’s decision and treated the bowling effort as a one-off. At the same time, Wasim Jaffer was full of praise for Lucknow’s batting performance. The tourists hammered 110 runs between overs 7-15 after a frenetic powerplay.
“It is a trend for IPL sides to opt for chasing after winning the toss. Dew was obviously a factor too. We had seen it during practice and that was a reason as well. But when the opposition gets to 257, it’s always tough to chase. They got a fast start in the powerplay and never slowed down at any stage. You have to give them credit,” Wasim Jaffer further added (Source: Cricbuzz).
Despite having a mammoth target to chase, Punjab Kings surprised many by not promoting any of their big hitters early in the batting order. While young Atharva Taide made the most of his opportunity to bat at number three, it seemed like a perfect stage for one of the power-hitters to come in early. However, Punjab Kings stuck to their conventional order, and as a result, a lot of their firepower arrived a bit too late in the innings.
“Our top-three is a fix and Taide is someone who always does well in the powerplay. We also wanted to maintain a left-right combination throughout. Also, someone like Livingstone hadn’t played a lot of cricket, Raza had done well for us and that’s why he was promoted.
We thought that if we can get closer to the total, we have the power of Livingstone and Curran. As for Jitesh and Shahrukh, their roles are for the final five overs. Everyone did their best but it’s just unfortunate that we fell short by 56 runs,” opined Wasim Jaffer.
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