Kings can bounce back: Arthur

sharjah — Karachi Kings coach Mickey Arthur said that they lacked the intensity against Islamabad United but believed that they can hit their strides again when they return to Dubai, a venue that suits them well.

Karachi Kings’ unbeaten streak came to a halt after they went down to Islamabad United by eight wickets at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Arthur felt that the wash-out against the Multan Sultans in Sharjah had hurt their momentum a little bit. He also said that all these things would be looked at during training and felt they can hit Quetta Gladiators, when they take them on, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Thursday night.

“We hadn’t played for a while. We were not on our game tonight and that’s disappointing. Our disciplines were poor, we were 20 to 25 runs short, our intensity was down and there’s no excuse for that. So, that was really disappointing. And we can put it down we haven’t played for a week or whatever but that’s no excuse,” said Arthur.

Karachi Kings were also without their talisman Shahid Afridi because of an injury but Arthur hoped to have him back in Dubai. “It is disappointing to lose him to an injury but it is not the end of the world. We have players who can come in and do the job for us. Our expectation is that we win every time we go out there. So, it is disappointing not to have him around. I’m sure he will be ready for the next game and we will get back hopefully, on to winning ways,” he said.

Babar Azam top scored with 55 from 53 balls but Arthur felt that he could have pushed on a little bit more. “Babar was ok today. He played alright and by his own admission, I think he’s got to get that run percentage up a little bit more than that. But then, again, he’s a class, classy player. I think what we saw was the fact that we didn’t lose wickets and we could keep ourselves with wickets in hand towards the back end. With wickets in hand at the back end, we cut loose there. I thought we were probably 15 runs short but I backed us to defend that. But the way we bowled, we wouldn’t have defended that anyway,” said the Pakistan coach.

“We had a quick chat in the dressing room and we will address it during training on Tuesday,” he said.