Concerned with the team's bowling in the death overs, Pune Warriors spinner Rahul Sharma said that his side gave away 20 runs extra in their game against Chennai Super Kings, which they lost by 37 runs to slump to their eighth defeat in the ongoing Pepsi Indian Premier League.
"We have been bowling well, but things are going a bit wrong in the death since the last three-four games. And the batting is also not clicking. The wicket was good for batting on Tuesday and we got a decent start but loss of three-four quick wickets pulled us back," Rahul said after last night's game.
Considering Chennai's strong batting line-up, the offie said Pune's plan was not to provide room to the opposition batsmen and wanted to restrict them below the 150-run mark.
"The plan was not to give Chennai batsmen too much room because they do have a lot of hard-hitters lower down like M S Dhoni, Dwayne Bravo, Albie Morkel. We wanted to restrict them to as less as possible like 140 or 150 but then according to me we gave about 20 runs more," Rahul told iplt20.Com.
A late blitz from CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 45 of just 16 balls, helped his side reach a competitive 164 last night.
Rahul was the pick of Pune Warriors bowlers, giving away just 27 runs in his fours overs and scalping one wicket in the process.
Pune are presently languishing at the bottom of the table with just two wins from eight games and their chances of qualifying for the play-offs is all but over.
Asked Rahul about the team's poor run this season, he said, "The boys are a good bunch and keep motivating themselves. But then I think we are not clicking together.
"It is a new team and the captain is also new. He (Aaron Finch) is captaining well, making good changes while bowling but the batting order is not getting set and the middle-order is collapsing.
