IPL 2018 | We need to chin up and move forward, says Ravichandran Ashwin

05/15/2018

Ravichandran Ashwin was extremely disappointed by KXIP’s performance against RCB and insisted that the team needs to keep their heads high and look to win the next games. Given that foreign players have played enough matches now, Ashwin stated that some of them need to step up their game. ``

KXIP, who have now lost 3 matches in a row, suffered a humiliating defeat against RCB by 10 wickets last night. Their loss could mainly be attributed to their batsmen, who got bundled out for 88 in 15.1 overs and could not even complete 20 overs of the innings. KXIP, who were once table-toppers, have now slipped to the fifth spot and now have must win games ahead of them.

Umesh Yadav, who took 3 wickets for 23 runs, was the pick of the bowlers for RCB and was the chief architect of the KXIP slump. Coming on to bat, Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel had no problems and scored 48 not out and 40 not out respectively and helped RCB win the match by 10 wickets. This victory kept the RCB's qualifying hops alive. Having 10 points from 12 games, RCB now have to win both their remaining matches to stand a chance to qualify.

Ashwin blasted his side's poor batting performance and pointed out that it’s the bowlers have got them the victory, but the batsmen have struggled so far. He insisted that they need to pick themselves up and move forward in the tournament.

"Really disappointing. Wasn't a professional effort from us. That has been the story for us. It's been the bowlers who have done it right and got the points for us. The batsmen have struggled more often than not. Anyway we need to chin up and move forward. Need to try and make sure to lift ourselves. It was very simple. We have never got to 20 overs with 3 down or 4 down so far in the tournament. That's what we wanted to achieve but the wheels came off at the right time for us," Ashwin said after the match as quoted by India Today.

For KXIP, Chris Gayle, who has scored 350 runs in 9 matches, has been the only foreign player who has had some impact, rest of the international players like Marcus Stoinis and Aaron Finch have still not given performances up to their potential. Ashwin urged his team's foreign players to make themselves count and help KXIP win matches ahead.

"We lost by a big margin and our net run rate has come down. We need to go to Mumbai and try to put them to bed, then we go to Pune to play Chennai. Most of these guys have played for a long time now, need their experience to count. We have a reasonable bowling attack that has fired for us. Time for the internationals to step up," he said.

Kings XI Punjab will take on Mumbai Indians on Wednesday before they fly to Pune to face Chennai Super Kings on Sunday.