IPL 2021 | It wasn't a 100-110 wicket, may be 150-160 wicket, asserts KL Rahul 

Wankhede is known for churning out flat wickets and with small boundaries, it's often considered a batting paradise. But, in the last two games, it has been far from that as the sticky nature of the pitch has made batting a tough challenge. And today, Punjab Kings were at the rough end of things, as on a tricky deck and against some quality bowling from Deepak Chahar, they struggled to get going and ended up losing four wickets in the powerplay. After that, they were compelled to play the catch up game and despite a good 47 from Shahrukh Khan, all they managed was a poor score of 106 runs. 

Speaking in the post-match presentation, losing skipper KL Rahul, suggested that the team fell short by at least, 40-50 runs as it was a wicket on which 150-160 should have been made. He also talked extensively about team's foreign pacers Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith and felt, they made a strong fight back today against CSK. 

"It wasn't a 100-110 wicket, maybe 150-160 sort of a wicket. But it's a good learning for us, hopefully we can learn from these mistakes and come back stronger in the next game. We have pace in our attack, we obviously want to use that. The first game didn't go too well for those two (Richardson and Meredith), it was their first game and I am sure they were a bit nervous. That was the chat after the game as well, that's how IPL goes. It can be tough and cruel. Their plans were clear, they did execute it pretty well. It was good to see that they came back stronger this game and they gave us crucial breakthroughs," Rahul said in the post-match presentation.

Despite a crushing loss, Rahul didn't blame the tricky nature of the wicket for his side's dismal batting performance and instead credited the CSK bowlers for executing their plans in an efficient manner. 

"There's not much more to say. If any team loses five wickets in the first seven or eight overs, it's always going to be catch up. They bowled well, we played some bad shots, that's how the game goes. It (pitch) was a lot more sticky and tacky than what it looked like. Credit to the CSK bowlers, they bowled in the right channels, Deepak with his knuckle balls got a couple of wickets, getting myself run-out doesn't help the team. Just the way we started, the pitch was still okay."

Punjab Kings had kick-started the season with a thrilling win over RR. Rahul is very well aware of the fact that there will be times when his team would make mistakes and perform as badly as they did today and maintained that it's about correcting the wrongs and coming back stronger, which matters the most. 

"We'd like to review ourselves on the key points that we speak about before the game and if we stuck to those plans. Last game we got 220, this game we couldn't get even half of it. It's important that we learn from our mistakes and that's the sort of team we want to be. We still want to go out there and play fearless cricket. It's T20 cricket, more often than not you'll score big runs but there'll be one or two games in a season where you lose wickets like this. It's important that we take it on the chin and move forward and get better next game." Rahul added.