{"id":34561,"date":"2026-05-15T12:48:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T10:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34561"},"modified":"2026-05-15T12:48:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T10:48:03","slug":"punjab-kings-face-pressure-after-five-straight-ipl-defeats","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/punjab-kings-face-pressure-after-five-straight-ipl-defeats\/","title":{"rendered":"Punjab Kings face pressure after five straight IPL defeats"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Punjab Kings set the early pace in the Indian Premier League by going seven matches unbeaten, but a run \u200bof five straight defeats has left their playoff hopes \u200cin the balance and assistant coach Brad Haddin concedes they have failed to deal with the pressure.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Tilak Varma\u2019s match-winning knock powered the Mumbai Indians to \u200ba six-wicket win on Thursday and left Punjab likely \u200bneeding wins over Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Lucknow Super \u2060Giants in their final two games to stay in \u200bcontention for a playoff spot.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe just haven\u2019t been able to handle \u200bthe pressure in the last few defeats. We haven\u2019t played our best cricket when we need to, which has been \u200bdisappointing. We are as disappointed as you guys are with \u200bthe way we started the tournament and where we are now. The one thing \u200cthat \u2060does come out of it is we\u2019ve got to find a way to get out of it. There\u2019s no hiding that we\u2019ve got to play better,\u201d Haddin told reporters on Thursday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Punjab\u2019s slump has raised questions about \u200bconsistency and squad \u200bfitness, but \u2060Haddin said the players had to focus on winning and block everything else out.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cYou\u2019ve got to \u200bdeal with everything outside and make sure when \u200byou get \u2060across that line, you\u2019re in the right headspace to play, and that\u2019s exactly what we need to do. Now there\u2019s \u2060no \u200btalking about what if. We have to \u200bfind a way to get the good that we\u2019ve had,\u201d he added.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Punjab next plays Bengaluru \u200bon Sunday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22148,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-34561","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Punjab next plays Bengaluru \u200bon Sunday.","published_date":"","news_description":"Punjab next plays Bengaluru \u200bon Sunday.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34562,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34561\/revisions\/34562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}