Mullanpur: Aggressive spells from Avesh Khan and Keshav Maharaj kept wickets falling at regular intervals, while Ashutosh Sharma’s cameo took Punjab Kings (PBKS) to a respectable score of 147/8 in their 20. over against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Mullanpur Stadium on Saturday. RR need to defend 148 runs to get their fifth win in the tournament.
After being invited to bat first, PBKS started cautiously, with openers Atharva Tayde and Jonny Bairstow not taking much risks against the new-ball trio of Trent Boult, Avesh Khan and Kuldeep Sen.
Avesh took his first wicket in the powerplay, dismissing Taide for 15 runs in 12 balls with the help of two fours. He was caught by Kuldeep at short third man. PBKS score was 27/1 in 3.4 overs. Prabhsimran Singh and Bairstow carried PBKS through the remainder of the powerplay without any further loss. At the end of six overs after the powerplay, PBKS’s score was 38/1.
However, just after the powerplay ended, Prabhasimran gave away his wicket by giving a simple catch to Dhruv Jurel and Yuzvendra Chahal took his 198th IPL wicket. PBKS score was 42/2 in 6.3 overs.
Bairstow’s poor form continued in the IPL as he gave some easy catching practice to Shimron Hetmyer in the cover region. Keshav Maharaj dismissed him for just 15 runs in 19 balls with the help of just one four. PBKS score was 47/3 in seven overs.
Sam Curran joins Jitesh Sharma. PBKS reached 50 runs in nine overs.
Jurel could not be kept out of the action as he ran in from deep midwicket to take a good catch and dismissed Curran for six off ten balls. Maharaj got the second wicket. PBKS were 52/4 in 9.3 overs.
At the end of 10 overs, PBKS score was 53/4. At the other end was now uncapped Indian batsman Shashank Singh who had emerged as the hero of PBKS in the last two matches. However, Royals’ tight bowling managed to keep the batsmen quiet as Kuldeep got his wicket after scoring just nine runs in nine balls. Half of PBKS team was out for 70 runs in 12.1 overs.
Liam Livingstone joined Jitesh at the other end. Both of them intensified the attack and hit 17 runs on Kuldeep in the 16th over, which included two sixes and a four. Punjab had scored 100 runs in 16 overs.
Avesh dismissed Jitesh for 29 runs in 24 balls with the help of one four and two sixes, ending their promising partnership at just 33 runs. Riyan Parag took an easy catch. PBKS score was 103/6 in 16.1 overs.
The next player was ‘impact player’ Ashutosh Sharma. He made his intentions clear by hitting a six off Chahal’s ball, but on the very next ball, Livingstone was run out after scoring 21 runs in 14 balls with the help of two fours and a six. PBKS score was 122/7 in 17.5 overs. Avesh’s last over took some of the pressure off Punjab as Ashutosh hit two sixes and scored 18 runs, taking the score to 141.
Only six runs were scored in the last over bowled by Boult and the wicket of Ashutosh (31 from 16 balls, with one four and three sixes) fell on the last ball. PBKS finished their innings at 147/8 in 20 overs with Harpreet Brar (3*) remaining unbeaten. Maharaj (2/23) and Avesh (2/34) were the top bowlers for RR. Chahal, Sen and Bolt got one wicket each. (ANI)
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2024-04-14 17:41:46