Former India cricketer turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has said that the Punjab Kings (PBKS) has almost made a habit of losing matches from the winning positions as well. The Punjab Kings needed only four runs off the final over in their IPL 2021 match against the Rajasthan Royals (RR), with eight wickets in hand as well.
Moreover, they had two well-set batsmen at the crease but they managed just a solitary run and eventually lost the match by two runs. While reflecting on the Punjab Kings’ defeat in a video on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra opened up on the fact that they have not learned from their past mistakes.
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He observed: “The expectation was that they will come back re-energized and rejuvenated but nothing like that happened. But then, it has become a habit of sorts. Haari baazi ko jo jeetne wale ko baazigar kahte hain, jeete match ko jo haarta hai, usko aaj kal Punjab Kings kahte hain.”
He continued: “Does it ever happen that you have an opening partnership of 120 runs, the opposing team drops four catches, you need just four runs in the last over with two set overseas batsmen at the crease, and despite that you lose the match by two runs.”
Notably, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal added together with a 120-run opening partnership in less than twelve overs. Seeing them, a win was on the card for Punjab as many thought. Later, the equation came down to eight runs required from the last two overs, with Nicholas Pooran and Aiden Markram batting comfortably, but they failed to win.
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Aakash Chopra again explained: “If your name is Punjab, if something can be done the difficult way, you don’t want to do it easily. In fact, this was the match where you opened your fist and let the match go. How did you do that? They would be asking themselves as well that when the match was in their grip, how did they lose it?”
“I am really sorry, I love you guys, honestly I do but I do feel very disappointed because there is expectation from you to win, but you are not able to win a match that you should have won. This is incredible,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
