Bowlers need to step up, says Raina

Rajkot, April 23 (IANS) After going down to Kings XI Punjab in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match on Sunday, dejected Gujarat Lions skipper Suresh Raina said his bowlers need to step up as they are lacking confidence in the middle.

Gujarat were beaten by Kings XI Punjab, who put up a strong all-round show to end their four-match losing streak with a 26-run victory.

Opening batsman Hashim Amla played a crucial knock of 65 as the visitors posted a challenging total of 188/7 in 20 overs. In reply, Gujarat could muster only 162/7, largely driven by Dinesh Karthik (58 not out) as the eighth-placed team succumbed to its fifth loss in seven matches.

"You can't chase 190 every time. Bowlers have to do something. We haven't won any 4 p.m. games. It's a learning curve for us. Spinners have to step up," Raina said after the match.

"Nathu got cramps, so I had to bowl Smith in the second last over. The bowlers are lacking confidence. They are not executing on match day... they do well in the nets, but not on match day, he explained.

Raina, who scored 32 runs off 24 balls, also blamed the wicket for the defeat.

"We thought we could still chase it down, but while we were batting, the wicket got slower and Sandeep (Sharma) and Mohit (Sharma) bowled good slower balls and made it hard for us to hit," the skipper said.

"At this stage, I can't say anything. We have to go there. Couple of injury issues, but we have to win more games, we can't just talk in training. We'll go to Bengaluru, regroup and hopefully we can win," he added.