DHARAMSHALA: Two weeks ago, Punjab Kings looked like the team nobody wanted to face. Six wins in seven matches – the only blemish a washout – had them perched atop the points table, a net run-rate to envy and a swagger that suggested the Playoffs were just a formality.Fast forward to now, and four straight defeats have dragged them to fourth place with 13 points from 11 games with a net run-rate of +0.428.
The slide has been as sudden as it has been sloppy. A failure to defend 222 against Rajasthan Royals, followed by a careless batting display against Gujarat Titans where they scored just 163 and GT chased it down, then crumbling under Sunrisers Hyderabad’s massive score of 235, and now the latest heartbreak: a three-wicket loss to Delhi Capitals in Dharamshala even after scoring 210 on a seaming wicket.What looked like a procession to Qualifier 1 now demands perfection in the final three games – against Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at home in Dharamshala, then Lucknow Super Giants away.Captain Shreyas Iyer didn’t mince words after the DC defeat. “I wouldn’t have to beat around the bush,” he said. “I would say fielding and bowling once again let us down. 210 was 30 runs more on this wicket considering how the ball was seaming and there was variable bounce.”And Iyer is right. Fielding has become Punjab’s recurring nightmare. They’ve dropped 19 catches this season, the most by any team, including two more against DC on Monday. Across 11 games, their catch success rate sits at a dismal 71.43 percent – the joint-worst with Chennai Super Kings.Spin-bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule acknowledged the rot after the game against Delhi. “We are dropping catches at crucial times. We will definitely look into those areas and see how we can just turn it around for ourselves,” he said. “Making big changes in the side won’t be the answer (to arrest the slide). Everyone has performed well in the tournament at some time or the other. We will get better.”Bowling, too, has lost its bite. The Dharamshala game saw leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal – IPL’s highest wicket-taker – being held back entirely for just the fourth time in his 185-match IPL career. Bahutule explained it as “a tactical call on a seaming track”.
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Iyer, on his part, added: “The way the ball was seaming and helping seamers, I think if we could have executed our lines and lengths in a precise manner, we could have extracted wickets with the seamers only. But unfortunately, we didn’t.”Bahutule, however, isn’t ready to press the panic button yet. “We started really well and, yes, we’ve lost our last four games, but we are still in the hunt to qualify,” he said. “All we need to do is to just keep these (last four games) aside and move ahead and play the next three games to the best of our ability. It’s a tournament of ups and downs, and we have to stay focused on the path ahead.”“Everybody is disappointed, but you really can’t overthink or over-analyse too many things. “It’s very important to take the learnings from the losses and look at the positives. We’ll look at those strengths and move ahead to the next challenge,” he added.
