Ahmedabad: Punjab Kings skipper KL Rahul said that his side failed to adapt on a new pitch and fell 20-30 runs short that led to a five-wicket defeat over Kolkata Knight Riders here at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Monday evening.
A spirited bowling performance from KKR restricted Punjab Kings to 123/9 in their allotted 20 overs. In reply, skipper Eoin Morgan and Rahul Tripathi led the run-chase and scored 47* and 41 runs respectively to put the side over the line with 20 balls to spare.
"I really don't know what to say, it was a poor performance from us. We should have adapted better on a new pitch, we could have applied a lot more with the bat and get that extra 20-30 runs. The wicket was a bit low and slow, but 120-130 was not enough. A few soft dismissals are that's costing us the game. The pitch was a bit two-paced and stayed up and down as well. It was hard in the first six overs to understand the good shots to play on this pitch," Rahul said after the match.
"It was expected that the pitch was difficult to assess at a new venue when you're batting first, but we should have assessed and adapted quickly but we couldn't do that. We have a few more games here and we hope to learn from our mistakes," he added.
Rahul further lauded Ravi Bishnoi for taking a stunning catch in the outfield. Bishnoi ran to his right from deep midwicket and put in a sliding dive at just the right time to pluck the ball to send Sunil Narine (0) back to the pavilion.
"That was a stunning catch (from Bishnoi), we've been a good fielding side. We have Jonty Rhodes who pushes the boys at every training session. He's a tough taskmaster and he puts everyone to test. He has great energy off the field and that rubs off on the players," he said.