Gilchrist blames slow and dry Mohali wicket for loss

Following his team's eight-wicket drubbing at the hands of Rajasthan Royals in a Pepsi IPL match here today, Kings XI Punjab skipper Adam Gilchrist attributed the loss to the "slow and dry" track at the PCA Stadium.
Chasing 146 to win, Rajasthan raced home with an over to spare.
After a strong start by Shaun Marsh and Gilchrist, the KXIP middle-order failed to build on it.
"Yeah, we had that foundation laid, I think the wicket was particularly slow and dry in comparison with anything we have played here during previous year. So different conditions, Rajasthan bowlers adjusted to those a lot better than we did as a batting team," the 41-year-old Australian told reporters after the match.

While Rajasthan are sitting pretty with 18 points, KXIP have just five wins from twelve games and will have to win all their remaining four matches to give themselves a glimmer of a hope of making the play-offs stage.
Asked what was their target in mind, Gilchrist said, "We thought if we get to 150-160 it could be defendable, anything above 160 was going to be bonus, I thought. But their bowling line-up just really suited that (the wicket's slowness).

"They have got the bowlers, their bowling style is such that they know how to take pace off the ball and bowl massive off spinning deliveries that get into the wicket.

"They were skilled enough to do that and do that well, that restricted our batting. It made very hard to hit a boundary and then our bowling is more sort of used to the faster pace of wicket here and big bounce and carry."
Gilchrist said he was talking to Royals skipper Rahul Dravid when the game started and the latter felt he made "poor selection in not playing another spinner and someone else who can take the pace off the ball".
"In hindsight, we would probably rather look at bowling options that is more suited to slow wicket. We've got a couple of niggling injuries. I think the biggest factor in the game was their ability to take pace off the ball and execute those slow balls extremely well," Gilchrist pointed out.