Follow UsPunjab Kings had been one of the most dominant batting sides in the ongoing Indian Premier League, but things went completely awry for them in the Qualifier 1 in Mullanpur as they were reduced to 60/7 at one point before being bundled out for a shambolic 101. Royal Challengers Bengaluru didn’t have to break a sweat to chase the total down.
While it was a collective failure from the Punjab batting unit, their bowling coach James Hopes stated that they need to regroup first and shouldn’t second-guess their approach, which has yielded them a lot of success in the ongoing IPL.
"We played the first over okay with the bat and then it sort of just snowballed from there. It's necessary that we digest it and move on from it by the end of tonight because we have to travel tomorrow and we've got to get up to play another game on Sunday and we're going to do it the hard way now. But I hope we meet RCB again on Tuesday night," Hopes said in the post-match press conference.
"The worst thing our batters can do now is blink and start jumping at shadows and second-guessing themselves," he strongly opined.
Hopes offered that they worked too hard over the league stage to earn the rights of having two cracks at the final, and he was hopeful that on the batting-friendly wicket of Ahmedabad, they could do better.
"To be honest, we didn't have a great night with the bat but we have a two-day turnaround now to play another final, to earn the right. We've worked for two and a bit months to earn the right to have a second chance and we're going to cash that second chance in hopefully.
"Historically, it [Ahmedabad] is a very good pitch and we know we're going to have to go quite hard and score quite quickly. It's not back to the drawing board by any means. We've worked two and a half months to get into a position where we get a second opportunity and we're going to have to use that second opportunity now," Hopes said.