Kings XI Punjab co-owner Preity Zinta rallied behind her team and backed them to still reach the Indian Premier League 2020 playoffs despite their defeat against Rajasthan Royals in Match 50 on Friday.
The Royals ended Kings XI’s 5-match winning streak as they gunned down the target of 186 in Abu Dhabi to keep their campaign alive in the tournament. Both teams are now tied on 12 points along with Kolkata Knight Riders.
KXIP occupy the 4th spot on the table as they are slightly ahead of RR (5th) and KKR (6th) on net run-rate with 1 game remaining for the 3 sides in the league stage.
The loss was a dent in KXIP’s campaign but the Bollywood actress still sounded confident of her team’s chances of reaching the playoffs. Preity Zinta urged her players to put the loss behind them and look forward to the next game.
“One off day doesn’t define who we are. We can still do this. Hope @lionsdenkxip can put tonight behind us & look forward to our next game. This tournament is wide open for a lot of teams so whoever wants it the most will get 2the playoffs. Fingers crossed,” Zinta tweeted.
One off day doesn’t define who we are. We can still do this. Hope @lionsdenkxip can put tonight behind us & look forward to our next game. This tournament is wide open for a lot of teams so whoever wants it the most will get 2the playoffs. Fingers crossed🤞 #Ipl2020 #Saddapunjab
— Preity G Zinta (@realpreityzinta) October 30, 2020
KXIP had posted a challenging total of 185 for 4 in 20 overs thanks to Chris Gayle’s swashbuckling 99 but the target still wasn’t big enough for the Royals as they rode on Ben Stokes’s 26-ball 50 and Sanju Samson’s 25-ball 48 to cross the finish line in just 17.3 overs with 7 wickets in hand.
KXIP skipper KL Rahul rued losing the toss and also blamed the dew at the Sheikh Zayed International Stadium for the big defeat.
“It was a horrible toss to lose to be honest. It did get very easy to bat later on. There was a lot of dew in the second half and that made it a bit tough for the bowlers to grip the ball.
“When you’re operating with two leg spinners like we are, it does make things difficult. Don’t think we bowled that badly but need to operate better with the wet ball. The dew has been unpredictable this season. You can’t prepare for it but need to adapt to it,” Rahul said after the game.
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