Chris Gayle and KL Rahul looked at their phenomenal best once again as Kings XI Punjab hammered 116 runs for the opening wicket, before the West Indian departed after scoring a blazing 36-ball 64 against Mumbai Indians on Wednesday. Having already missed out the clash against Delhi Capitals earlier in the season due to a back injury, Gayle seemed to have hurt the same area again, revealing the same to skipper Ravichandran Ashwin.
It wasn’t one of those typical performances by the duo of Rahul and Gayle against Mumbai, who had aggregated just 93 runs as a pair at an average of 18.6 in the five matches they had played against the 3-time champions before. Having previously put together stands of 18, 7, 11 and 4, it was the first instance they reached the 3-figure mark as an opening pair against MI.
While Rahul remained unbeaten, slamming his first IPL century, it was another West Indian batsman in the form of Kieron Pollard who romped to form with a 31-ball 83 to help the hosts bag winning runs on the very last ball of the match at Wankhede stadium.
Ashwin, the KXIP skipper, believed it was a par score before lauding Pollard’s unreal performance to hand his side a third consecutive win in the ongoing IPL season.
“We were a bit up and down with our fielding and catching. Probably if we would have been sharper, we would have ended up on the right side. I think it was a defendable total. It was just about par. It is a hard defending ground,” said Ashwin in the post-match presentation.
After hailing KL Rahul’s heroics, the off-spinner also broke worrisome news for Punjab fans as he revealed that Gayle had twisted his back and the Kings XI camp is yet to figure out the extent of the injury.
“Rahul batted through and closed out the inning We could have been a little more steelier and smarter with our plans. He (Gayle) said he twisted his back. We have to go check and how he is,” Ashwin added.
Kings XI Punjab are next up against under-fire Royal Challengers Bangalore who are yet to win a game in this season of the IPL. It would be once again a home game for Ashwin’s men who have been phenomenal in Mohali.
