Our batsmen are really trying very hard, but its not coming off: KXIP coach Sanjay Bangar
With Kings XI Punjab losing seven out of their nine matches, coach Sanjay Bangar has said batting failure and inability to chase down moderate totals has resulted in the team languishing at the bottom of the IPL points table.
Going down to Mumbai Indians by 23 runs in Sunday’s game, the George Bailey-led side remained with just 2 wins in the competition so far and Bangar blamed the batting for the team’s poor show.
“It’s just that batsmen are really trying very hard, but its not coming off. Because of that we are not able to chase down the scores which we generally have the capacity to chase down. So, I think that’s probably one of the reasons,” Bangar said in the post-match conference.
Kings XI though have five more games to go in season eight and Bangar did put up a brave front when asked about the team’s future.
“It’s definitely an uphill task, but you start everyday fresh and you try and win one game at a time. We will try to do that for next five games, lets see where we end up,” he said.
Chasing 173 for a win, Kings XI could only muster 149 for seven in 20 overs and Bangar opined the batsmen failed to hit the desired boundaries.
“I think we failed to hit as many boundaries. They (MI) scored 21 boundaries as against 13 by us because of which we could not accelerate as we should have,” he said.
He also gave credit to the Mumbai bowlers for applying brakes and taking wickets when it mattered.
“I thought (David) Miller (who made 43) was going really well and he was set, but (Mitchell) McClenaghan and (Lasith) Malinga bowled really some good deliveries and they didn’t offer any freedom to the batsmen to free their arms because of that we could not accelerate at that stage,” he said.
Commenting on the strategy for the upcoming matches, he said, “We will try to play an aggressive game, which has been our strength. Once we click, I am hopeful we will be able to put up a big score or chase down any target.”
On the question of tampering with the playing XI far too often, Bangar blamed it on circumstances.
“Manan (Vohra) was indisposed, he was hospitalised becauseof dehydration and was on drips, that was a big letdown for us. We are hoping that he would be available for us in the upcoming games. Apart from that we brought Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Johnson..if you see most teams have ended up using nearly 18 players and we have not been any different.
“So, I just feel that there was certain situation wherein (skipper George) Bailey got injured and because of that Shaun Marsh came in. Marsh won us a game and when Bailey had to return there had to be an overseas player who had to sit out and (Glenn) Maxwell had to sit out. So, there are times when those changes have been forced because of circumstances.”
