IPL 2017: RPS vs KXIP, 5 things that went wrong for Kings XI Punjab

Unadkat picked Guptill’s wicket on the first ball of the match

The much-hyped contest between Rising Pune Supergiant and Kings XI Punjab ended up being an anti-climax as Punjab offered no resistance and lost the match by 9 wickets. Punjab displayed one of their worst batting performances as they were all out for only 73 runs. Pune chased the target in 12 overs and booked a place in the play-offs

 With this abysmal performance, Punjab ended their IPL 2017 campaign on a bad note. On a day when nothing went in the favour of Punjab, the team management made some strategic blunders while awful performances by their star players added to the misery.

Here we look at the five things that went wrong for Punjab in this match and contributed to their humongous defeat.

#1 Guptill and Marsh’s failure to apply themselves on tricky pitch

The Pune pitch offered help for the bowlers, and hence, Steve Smith, after winning the toss, had no hesitation in opting to bowl first. On such a surface where batting was going to be difficult, the batsmen were expected to play with caution.

However, Martin Guptill, Punjab’s opening batsman, failed to apply himself on this wicket and perished on the first ball of the innings.

Undakat bowled the first delivery outside off stump and the New Zealand batsman played a loose shot which ended up being an easy catch to the fielder at short cover.

Shaun Marsh is a technically strong batsman and much was expected from him on this challenging surface but he too, failed to apply himself on this pitch. In the fourth over, he tried to hit Shardul Thakur on the up and was out caught by Smith at mid-off.

The failure of these two star batsmen to read the wicket exposed the vulnerable middle order of Punjab and ultimately led to their downfall.