Losing IPL games narrowly has become a pattern: Kumble

TIL Desk Sports/ Punjab Kings head coach Anil Kumble admitted that his team losing IPL games narrowly has become a pattern and the two-run defeat to Rajasthan Royals was certainly a difficult pill to swallow. The Punjab side failed to score four runs from the final over with the Royals fast bowler Karthik Tyagi dismissing Nicholas Pooran and Deepak Hooda and giving away only one run to snatch the win for his team on Tuesday.

“It’s sort of become a bit of a pattern for us, especially as soon as we get to Dubai, it seems. There was a clear message saying we need to finish this game in 19 overs, and that was the approach,” Kumble said at the post-match press conference. “Unfortunately, we let it till the end, and in the last couple of balls it becomes a lottery (with) a new batsman going in, it is a bit of lottery.”

The legendary leg-spinner gave credit to Tyagi for the way he bowled the final over. “But credit to how Tyagi bowled the last over, it was pretty obvious that he’s going to bowl wide outside the off stump, but somehow our batters didn’t take the right options. “Yes, it’s become a pattern, that’s something that we need to discuss and sort out. We have five more games, but again, we don’t want to get bogged down by this defeat. It’s certainly a difficult pill to swallow,” elaborated Kumble.