Poor start cost us the match: Sangakkara

Cuttack:

After slumping to their third consecutive defeat in the tournament, Kings XI Punjab skipper Kumar Sangakkara said poor start to their run chase cost his side the Indian Premier League match against Deccan Chargers here on Friday.

Chasing a competitive 171 for victory, Kings XI made a disastrous start to their innings, scoring just 27 runs for the loss of three wickets in the first six overs.

And according to Sangakkara, it made the difference between a victory and a defeat for Kings XI.

"The fielding and bowling was lot better. We executed our plans on the field well but it was the first six overs that cost us the match. But Pathan played a magnificient innings towards the end to keep us in," Sangakkara said after the match.

"Hopefully we can turnaround the results in the next games. The guys are working very hard," he said.

His Deccan Chargers counterpart Adam Gilchrist said although his side won the match on Friday, they were 15-20 runs short.

"We may been 10-15 runs short. We let them make a comeback into the match after the start we had. We lost the momentum after mine and a few other wickets," he said.

Man-of-the-match Andrew Symonds, who scored a 38-ball 53 apart from picking up a wicket and accounting for two crucial catches, agreed with his skipper.

"Probably we were 20 runs short of what we wanted. We lost wickets at crucial stages," he said.