IPL 10: Match 4, Who Said What: Kings XI Punjab v Rising Pune Supergiant

It was a splendid start to the tournament for the under-achievers of the IPL, Kings XI Punjab as they won their opening fixture against the Rising Pune Supergiant by 6 wickets and 6 balls to spare. Maxwell won the toss and asked Smith’s team to bat first. Maxwell’s plans worked out perfectly, as Pune were tottering at 71-4 after a disciplined bowling performance by Kings XI Punjab bowlers namely Sandeep Sharma, Axar Patel and IPL debutant T Natarajan.

Even Steve Smith could not replicate his heroics at Pune. Cometh the hour and cometh the man, Ben Stokes stood up when the backs of the Pune team were against the wall. Along with Manoj Tiwary (40* off 23), Stokes steered his side into a competitive position with the help of his 32-ball half-century.

Chasing a score of 164, every batsman from the Kings XI’s lineup contributed with essential contribution to keep up with the asking run-rate. The stand-out partnership for the Punjab team came when Maxwell and Miller arrived at the crease after quick dismissals of Amla and Axar Patel. The duo ensured that there were no further hiccups in pursuit of their target. In the end, it was a comfortable victory for the Punjab side as they acquire two important points in their very first match of the league. Glenn Maxwell was adjudged as the man of the match for his 22-ball 40.

Glenn Maxwell

Glenn Maxwell hopes that there would be a change in fortune with the change in the home ground as they did not have an eventful tournament for the past couple of years. Maxi praised the bowlers who helped in restricting the Pune side to an achievable total. Maxwell believes that he is comfortable with the additional responsibility of captaincy. He further added that his team would like to continue with the winning ways in the upcoming matches.

Nice to start off at the new home ground and give some joy. It hasn’t been fruitful for us in the last 2 years. The way we came out with the bat and ball was pleasing. We just came in with positive minds and had our plans for each individual batsman. We were a bit off with the practice matches. In one of our practice matches, we scored just 130. Today’s wicket was bit slow and bit spongy.Was very happy to restrict them to what we did. Doing the job in first six is very important. That’s something which we didn’t in the last season. It is easier to chase. When you chase down, you need to time your chase well and keep your wickets in the back end. I’m hitting the ball quite well. It’s nice to be comfortable. Feel like I can control. Nice to have the leadership and it’s giving me the extra bit of responsibility. Hopefully, we keep the winning form.

Steven Smith

The Rising Pune SuperGiants captain stated that batting first, his team was twenty run short as the nature of the wicket changed which eased the batting. Smith further added that the Pune batting unit would look to express themselves by playing fearless cricket. However, Smith was optimistic about the upcoming matches of the long tournament as he’d like his team to rectify their errors.

Probably wasn’t quite enough (the first innings score). The wicket hardened up for the second innings. We needed around 180 to be competitive. The wicket was a bit tacky and it was tough to score against the new ball. We have to be a bit more aggressive and we need to play without fear. Could have gone little bit harder. We played well in the back end. To get to 163 was reasonable, but probably needed more than that. New season, you gotta move forward and try and rectify the mistakes from last year. We’ll try and get better with each and every game we play.

The KXIP are scheduled to play the Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 10 at their newly adopted home ground in Indore while the Pune team will lock horn against the Daredevils the very next day.