IPL 2021 | Wicket was obviously a little challenging but nothing that we were not expecting, states Chris Jordan
Jordan salvaged some pride for Punjab Kings
|IPLT20
Chris Jordan, who emerged as the shining light from Punjab’s display, stated that the Ahmedabad wicket was a little challenging but nothing that they were not expecting from it. He also insisted that it is the beauty of playing in India, with varied conditions from slow wickets to bouncy surfaces.
On Tuesday, Punjab moved their caravan to Ahmedabad, after playing their cricket in Mumbai and Chennai earlier this season. While conditions in Mumbai were well favourable to their kind of performance, the franchise only managed to rack up one win at the venue. However, they beat all odds against Mumbai in Chennai to climb up the ladder.
So when the caravan moved to Ahmedabad, a lot of expectations were on the franchise to perform better. However, they had a terrible performance, where they were thoroughly outpaced by the Knight Riders, by five wickets. In the post-match press conference, Punjab Kings’ all-rounder Chris Jordan stated that the wicket was obviously challenging but nothing that they were not expecting.
“The wicket was obviously a little challenging but nothing that we were not expecting. We have been doing a lot of work in training, to counter dew. We were well prepared from that point of view. I think we still did well enough to put some pressure on KKR and take the game close. But at the end of the day, we didn’t have enough runs to challenge them,” Jordan insisted in the post-match press conference.
Earlier in the week, English all-rounder Ben Stokes lambasted the conditions in Chennai, calling the wickets ‘trash’ for providing low-scoring games. However, Jordan reckoned that playing on varying surfaces is probably the best part of playing cricket in India. The all-rounder added that playing in India is always challenging, with conditions being slow and bouncy across the venues.
“Not sure what Stokesy (Stokes) said, from my point of view, playing in India is always challenging. Some wickets can be slow and others can be quite bouncy. It is all part and parcel of the challenge of being a professional cricketer so that you can adapt to the conditions best as possible. So far in the IPL, it has been great viewing, either plenty of runs or tight games, so it has been a great tournament.”
Punjab find themselves in a similar situation as last year, where they were severely beaten and underperformed for the most part of the tournament. However, Jordan reckoned that the franchise is very close to pulling together a perfect game and insisted that they would soon start ‘climbing’ up the table.
“The way forward, we have to keep doing the good things regularly, we are very very close to putting together a perfect game. At some point in the tournament, we have had a good batting or bowling display. It is all about bringing both of them to the table together. So hopefully you should see us putting it together and climbing up the table.”
