When Royal Challengers Bengaluru blew their batting plan in the first qualifier, Punjab Kings’ entire world fell apart. Shreyas Iyer’s team played carefree for the majority of the season and dominated their way to their first postseason berth since 2014. However, in the first high-stakes game, wings were badly clipped, giving them much to think about. PBKS bowling coach James Hopes doesn’t anticipate the squad going off course with the bat, even after being bowled out for 101.
“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 [Friday] 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 [in the final],” Hopes offered optimistically, after an early finish on Thursday.
“The worst thing our batters can do now is blink and start jumping at shadows and second-guessing themselves,” he strongly opined. PBKS went into the first qualifier with the second best scoring rate (10.02) and a battalion of consistent uncapped batters, sourced through expert scouting and adequate allocation of the auction budget. Ricky Ponting and Shreyas then backed them to remain carefree irrespective of the adversity ahead, and they delivered. Q1 was one of the few times when the heavy metal approach backfired, but Hopes remained adamant that they don’t need to ‘go back to the drawing board’.
“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.
According to Hopes, there was still a strong conviction that counterattacking had gotten the club this far despite the finest bowlers and strategies. However, he acknowledged that the timing of the recaliberation versus RCB should have been better.
“I made the comment that if I saw Bhuvi’s first over, I would have given Josh the second over and seeing the ball just nipping around a little bit… They’re two world-class bowlers in those kinds of conditions. Our batters were a little bit reckless, but they have counter-attacked the whole year and it’s worked the majority of the time. It didn’t work tonight.”
According to Hopes, PBKS will depart Chandigarh on Friday for Ahmedabad, where they will play the victor of the eliminator between the Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans on Sunday.
