Kings XI Punjab captain Glenn Maxwell today lavished praise on his bowlers and fielders for his side's 14-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL match here.
"I asked for an improved performance on the field and certainly got that tonight. Axar Patel led by example on the field. I suppose the spinners came into the game, Rahul Tewatia bowled really well," Maxwell said after the match.
"As soon as that first ball spun, we realised we could get in a lot of overs from the spinners. We were able to get a couple of wickets in the middle, and kept them quiet till the end," he said.
"We probably left ourselves maybe 10-15 short, but the way we scrapped on the field and the way we bowled, outstanding. They (bowlers) were probably at their calmest, they knew what they wanted to do and executed it well."
The win kept KXIP in the hunt for a play-off berth.
"Still hanging in there by the skin of our teeth, but we're giving our fans something to cheer for," said the Australian.
KKR captain Gautam Gambhir said his and Robin Uthappa's dismissal in the same over was the turning point of the match.
"I thought we started off really well. I thought me and Robin getting out was the turning point. Credit to Kings XI, they hung in there and never gave us easy runs," he said.
"I thought the dot balls made a lot of difference. Obviously you want to be smart. At one stage, we needed 7.5 or 8 an over, taking it to 10 or 11 was the turning point," he said.
"You could say I could have opened and Robin could have come in at 3. But we thought Sunil has been hitting the ball well. Maybe we could think of that combination in the coming games.
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