Giving Brar the last over was a decision based on his first two overs, asserts Sunil Joshi

Shikhar Dhawan and Punjab Kings have made a lot of tactical errors in the ongoing Indian Premier League, and it was fully evident on Wednesday when they didn’t give the last over to Arshdeep Singh and instead decided to go with Harpreet Brar. That backfired massively as Brar gave away 23 runs, with Rilee Rossouw making a feast out of him.

That tactical blunder was definitely the talking point as Punjab Kings let their playoffs chances slip away from their own hands, but their bowling coach Sunil Joshi defended the tactics by saying Brar bowled well in his first two overs, giving away just 16 runs, which prompted skipper Shikhar Dhawan to throw him the last over.

“We bowled very well, in fact. The wicket was true. But the execution part was missing. It is a matter of one over. That’s a difference. Brar and Chahar bowled well. But in the third over, Brar gave away 23 runs. So it was a matter of one over,” Joshi said in the post-match press conference.

“When you have a 200-plus score, you’re always catching up with the game. If you have a lean over, scoring around 10 runs in an over, you’re catching up. That made the difference.”

Mathematically, Punjab are still alive and can make it to the playoffs but the chances are very slim. That would officially mark the ninth consecutive season of the Kings failing to break into the Top 4, but Joshi is still optimistic and wants his team to do everything to achieve the result.

“We have to win both games. We don’t have qualification options in our hands. But this is going to be new and true wicket in Dharamsala. We should be more disciplined with bowling and bat well in the middle order,” Joshi added.