Andrew Tye gave 16 runs and took 4 wickets in his 4 overs against Mumbai Indians. (Source: BCCI)
After Kings XI Punjab suffered their fourth consecutive defeat in the Indian Premier League against Mumbai Indians on Wednesday at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, seamer Andrew Tye, who took four wickets and gave just 16 runs in his four overs, criticised the lack of team effort displayed by his side. Tye, who is the holder of Purple Cap, for taking 24 wickets in this season so far, said that apart from KL Rahul, who scored 94 runs, and a few bowlers, not many players are contributing in crucial stages.
Speaking to reporters at the press conference, the Australian international said that some players are letting the team down. “(It) doesn’t really matter if I take 4/16 or someone else takes 4/16. It means obviously someone else has let you down and it’s not a whole team effort. That is something that we’ve struggled for a lot this IPL. We haven’t had enough boys standing up other than KL with the bat or myself and Mujeeb with the ball,” Tye said.
He further went on to describe the 3-wicket loss as “bitterly disappointing”. “It’s bitterly disappointing that we did not win against Mumbai tonight. We figured that was probably about par score on that wicket. We had the firepower in our team to chase it down and we could not do it,” he said.
Tye further went on to say that Rahul, who has scored three fifties in the past four games, is the only batsmen who has scored runs in the latter half of the tournament. “Sure, you can look at it and say we lost momentum after that [one-week] break but at the same time, we didn’t have anyone else stand up. You know, in the first few games we have KL, [Chris] Gayle or Karun [Nair] who’d scored half-centuries or a century. But if you look at it since the break, KL is the only batsmen who’s gone past fifty,” the 31-year old said.
The right-arm bowler further added that KXIP have not put a complete performance. “As good as our bowling attack is…. we haven’t been putting up complete performance as a team with both bat and the ball and that sums up why we probably haven’t won games lately,” he said.
After the loss, KXIP remained at the fifth position while Mumbai Indians climbed to the fourth position in the table.