Mullanpur: Gujarat Titans assistant coach Parthiv Patel said after their three-wicket defeat at the hands of Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match that it was not an easy wicket to bat on and the conditions made a big difference. Punjab Kings achieved the target of 163 runs with five balls remaining in the match played on Tuesday. Parthiv told reporters after the match, “As a team you always want to present a tough challenge. I am happy that we took the match till the last over.

He said, “It was not an easy wicket to bat on. It has been raining here for the last three-four days and the groundsman did a great job in preparing the wicket. After the ball became old, it was reverse swinging a bit and was also stopping a bit. It was not easy to bat after the powerplay.

Parthiv said that despite the wicket not being easy to bat on, Punjab bowlers performed well. With the brilliant bowling of senior spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (two wickets for 28 runs) and fast bowler Vijaykumar Vishak (three wickets for 34 runs), Punjab restricted Gujarat to a low score. After this, Australian batsman Cooper Connelly, on his IPL debut, led the home team to victory by playing a decisive innings of 72 runs in 44 balls.

Parthiv said, “Punjab bowlers bowled well in the last overs. If we had taken one or two more wickets then it would have been difficult to achieve the target of 160 runs. Due to rain the dry pitch started playing better. In the second innings the ball was coming well on the bat. “Conditions make a huge difference in this T20 format.”