It wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on, said Gujarat Titans assistant coach Parthiv Patel, citing the challenging pitch as the primary reason for his team’s three-wicket loss to Punjab Kings in their IPL 2026 opener here.

Punjab Kings chased a 163-run target with five balls to spare on Tuesday.

“As a team you want them to fight. I am happy that we took the game to the last over,” Patel said in the post-match press conference.

“It wasn’t the easiest wicket to bat on.

It’s been raining here for the last three-four days and the groundsmen did a really good job to prepare the wicket. Once the ball was old, it was reversing a bit, it was also holding up a bit. After PowerPlay, batting wasn’t easy,” he explained.

However, Patel also stated that the difficult pitch does not take away credit from the effort of Punjab’s bowlers.

Senior spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (2/28) and seamer Vijaykumar Vyashak (3/34) kept things tight to restrict Gujarat to a relatively modest total before young Australian southpaw Cooper Connolly marked his IPL debut with a decisive 44-ball 72 to steer the home side past the finishing line.

Also read | Cooper Connolly’s debut knock shows maturity; he will be one of the finds of IPL 2026: Chahal

“As I said, the Punjab bowlers, the way they bowled in the final overs, they bowled cleverly towards the end,” Patel said.

Elaborating on what went wrong for the Shubman Gill-led side, Patel said conditions played a major role.

“The match went to the 20th over. A wicket here or there, and maybe even 160 runs wouldn’t have been chased. Due to the rain, the dry pitch started to play better.

The ball was skidding and coming onto the bat nicely.

“The outfield also became a bit wet. If everything had gone our way, maybe we could have won this match,” Patel said during the post-match press conference,” he said.

“…obviously, there was a contest here without a doubt, a 160-game contest. But it depends, the conditions make a big difference in this T20 format.

“Even in the World Cup, we saw India could not chase down 180 against South Africa and then the flat wicket came, and India scored 250 in the final. So, the condition makes a big difference. There is no doubt about it,” he asserted.

Published on Apr 01, 2026