Kings XI Punjab have been one of the most aggressive teams in the current edition of the VIVO Indian Premier League. With Captain Ravichandran Ashwin and Virender Sehwag having made their intentions clear before the league began, their team’s strategy was a given.

However, on Thursday their strategy might have backfired as the team went all guns blazing right throughout and lost too many wickets which ultimately led to a 13-run loss while chasing a low total against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Photo credit: BCCI/IPLT20.com

Ashwin, though, wasn’t too disappointed with the team’s performance and said that in a long league such as the IPL, wins and losses are part and parcel of a team’s journey.

“These things happen in this kind of a tournament,” Ashwin said at the post-match press conference. “We lost wickets through the middle and I thought we just kept attacking a little too much. But we have been playing some attacking cricket and we have to accept the result even if it goes the other way. Rashid Khan’s bowling obviously made the difference.”

But Ashwin was also quick to point out that their mistakes in the field were what cost the team more dearly than their aggression with the bat.

“I thought we fielded pretty badly. We dropped way too many catches for a 20 over game and in the end, it cost us. If we had taken at least a couple of those catches we might have restricted them to 20-30 runs lower,” he reflected.

After this loss, KXIP fell to the third slot in the league standings. But, with all three top teams on the same number of points, the Kings are really not that far behind the other two. Going forward, Ashwin was clear that the team’s confidence either in themselves or in any of the individual players in firm.

“You won’t get all the puzzles solved immediately. It’s a long tournament and hopefully some of the people who we have trusted will come good. That’s how you keep going, because they are quality players so sooner or later they have to come good. It’s important to keep your head up because you do have bad games,” he said.