PBKS vs RR | ‘Tough one to swallow’ – KL Rahul laments over a heart-breaking loss

09/22/2021

KL Rahul admitted that his side needs to handle pressure better, following a heart-breaking 2-run defeat to Rajasthan Royals in Dubai on Tuesday. Punjab Kings needed 15 off 10 at one point, and 4 off 6 later, but were robbed of a win by Kartik Tyagi, who conceded just a single off the final over.

KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal batted with great fluency and dominance, addding 120 in 11.5 overs for the first wicket to put their side on course in a run-chase of 186. Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran then added 52 between overs 13-19, to bring it down to four off six.

Kartik Tyagi however, bowled a stunning last over, conceding just a single while dismissing Pooran and Deepak Hooda to snatch a win from the jaws of defeat for the Rajasthan Royals.

Rahul, whose 33-ball 49 put him on top of the run-scoring charts for the season, was clearly disappointed with the result.

"Tough one to swallow," KL rahul said after the game. "We need to see how we can handle pressure better. It's happened to the best in the game. Tough one to swallow that you haven't learnt from your previous mistakes. We bowled decent lengths in the first six. Unfortunate that edges got it away from us. But we pulled this back nicely with the ball."

Sanju Samson, the Rajasthan Royals skipper, was in all praises for the experienced Mustafizur and young Tyagi for their brilliance at death.

"Somewhere we had that fight left,” said Samson. “We knew we had some special bowlers. Kept Mustafizur's overs for the end. Tyagi was confident with his yorkers, especially wide yorkers. Executed them well against the new batters. And we had top fielding plans for every batter, we have planned till the last batter.

“We were happy with our score, on this wicket that was a good score. We are a better bowling/fielding team too. We could've won the game early if there weren't drops early on."

Rajasthan Royals moved to the fifth position in the points table, with four wins from eight games.