Batsmen trying hard: KXIP coach

Mohali: With Kings XI Punjab losing seven out of their nine matches, coach Sanjay Bangar has said batting failure and inability to chase down moderate totals has resulted in the team languishing at the bottom of the IPL points table.
“It’s just that batsmen are really trying very hard, but its not coming off. Because of that we are not able to chase down the scores which we generally have the capacity to chase down. So, I think that’s probably one of the reasons,” Bangar said in the post-match conference.
Kings XI though have five more games to go in season eight and Bangar did put up a brave front when asked about the team’s future.
“It’s definitely an uphill task, but you start everyday fresh and you try and win one game at a time. We will try to do that for next five games, lets see where we end up,” he said.
Chasing 173 for a win, Kings XI could only muster 149 for seven in 20 overs and Bangar opined the batsmen failed to hit the desired boundaries.
“I think we failed to hit as many boundaries. They (MI) scored 21 boundaries as against 13 by us because of which we could not accelerate as we should have,” he said. He also gave credit to the Mumbai bowlers for applying brakes and taking wickets when it mattered.
“I thought (David) Miller was going really well and he was set, but (Mitchell) McClenaghan and (Lasith) Malinga bowled really some good deliveries and they didn’t offer any freedom to the batsmen to free their arms because of that we could not accelerate at that stage,” he said. (PTI)