AHMEDABAD: Punjab Kings have been setting themselves up to win the Indian Premier League and not settle for third place, asserted bowling coach James Hopes after the team stormed into the final with a five-wicket win over Mumbai Indians.
After falling short in Qualifier 1, Shreyas Iyer and others, responded with a commanding performance in Qualifier 2 on Sunday, dismantling the five-time champions to set up a title clash with Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Tuesday.
“We’d been setting ourselves up for a couple of months the way that we were playing not to come third. We wanted to be in there with the chance to come first and we’ve given ourselves that chance now,” Hopes told the media on Sunday.
He acknowledged while the group will be excited knowing they are one step away from lifting the trophy, he added they will have to brace for a huge “pro-Kohli” crowd here in the world’s largest stadium.
“It’s just a short turn around for us, we’ve finished at 2 am which is pretty late so tomorrow will be just about the guys recovering and getting mentally prepared for what I imagine is going to be a pretty big crowd and a pretty big pro Kohli crowd as well.”
