Jaipur: Kings XI Punjab coach Tom Moody put on a brave face in front of the media after yet another disappointing loss, this time to Rajasthan Royals. Here's more from his interaction with the media.
On the same old story being repeated: Yeah, it was a very disappointing performance, we lost our way halfway through our batting. We obviously started off well and built a base for us to get a total of around about 180, I thought, which I think would have been very competitive out there. [But] we lost our way with our batting, lost momentum in the game and credit to Rajasthan and (Michael) Lumb up front, he just compounded that momentum and took the game away from us.
On the reason for leaving out Brett Lee: He is in bed, sick.
On the team’s bowling performance: At the end of the day, when you lose momentum in this format of the game, whether you are batting or you’re bowling, it’s very hard to pull it back. We were chasing the game, in this format of the game you want to be an over ahead, we were always an over behind the game and it’s a very hard game to chase when you don’t have the momentum. As I said, up front Lumb took the initiative early, he realised we lost the momentum in the second half of our batting, and compounded that and made it very difficult for us to bounce back. We needed something special with the new ball, it didn’t happen. We needed early wickets to recapture that momentum, we didn’t get those early breakthroughs, therefore it became a bit of a landslide.
On Yuvraj’s wicket: Yeah, look, I think the shot was on, the wicket was a bit two-paced and I think that particular ball just stuck in the wicket a bit and therefore he chopped it on, got an inside edge onto the wicket. I think the ball was there to be hit, Yuvraj has been in good form in the last couple of games, he is a player [who is] important to give his head, he can turn a game upside down with an over or two and he was batting beautifully at that point. But this ball was halfway down there, it should have been put away, but it just held up in the wicket. You have got to also give Rajasthan credit the way they bowled and exploited the conditions. They changed their pace very cleverly in that second half of the innings and therefore we couldn’t hit the boundaries we needed to.
On any hope being left: Yeah, obviously we have got a lot to play for. We know that the semi-finals obviously are out of reach. But we have got a lot to play for as a team, as a franchise and individually. We have got to step up a hell of a lot, higher than what we stepped up tonight, it was a very disappointing performance from all of us and we need to bounce back, simple as that. We have all got pride in this sport and we need to walk on and walk on with pride and make sure that the next opportunity we get, which is a home fixture against Mumbai Indians, we step up and play the cricket we know we can play. I think this is certainly no reflection of the way we have played our last three games, obviously we have had a good win at Kolkata and we had two very close contests leading into that game against Kolkata, we were finding ourselves back on track but today’s performance is certainly no reflection of the way that we have been playing our cricket over the last week or so.
On the lack of co-ordination shown by the team: At the end of the day we haven’t had consistency in IPL 3. Our performances whether [it] be with bat, ball and in the field have been inconsistent and on each occasion it has let us down. A good example of that was in the field against Bangalore at home only a few days ago, where we should have sealed that game but missed opportunities in the field and we ended up coming second. Today we lost our way, obviously, with the bat towards the second half of the innings but our bowling performance was certainly no reflection of the way we can bowl, so we are not putting the three disciplines together. We are not performing as well as we know we can in those three areas and hence we are suffering at the bottom of the table. The only thing we can do is reflect, review that performance and review our performances to date and make sure that we try to get all those three disciplines working in our last few games.
On KXIP being overhauled next season: I think every team is going to be overhauled by the next IPL. By the sounds of it you can only keep a certain number of overseas players and a certain number of your Indian internationals. So I think, going forward, a lot of sides are going to look very different. I think every franchise at the end of this season, wherever they finish in the table, will be having a very close look at their talent and making sure that they get the right balance, the right personnel and making sure they learn the lessons from the first three years. I think everyone has had ups and downs in the first three seasons. Leading into this IPL 3 we were the second highest winning team so we have had some good times [but] obviously we are going hard at the moment. We need to reflect over the last three seasons and then make the necessary calls on who we head-hunt and who we look to keep.
On ending up at the bottom of the table: At the end of the day, as I said earlier, we haven’t been consistent in our batting, bowling or fielding. Some days we have got one or two of them right but not the other. So you don’t deserve to have the consistency on the wins and I think it’s a pretty fair reflection on the way we have played, we haven’t strung it together, we haven’t got any momentum in this tournament. But it is not a loss, at the end of the day we have still got a lot to play for as a side and as a franchise and it’s important we walk away with our heads held very high and making sure that we make it very difficult for every opponent we face from this point onwards and secure some points and continue to play the cricket, or try to achieve the brand of cricket, that we know we can play.
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