IPL 2024 – Punjab beats Gujarat Titans by 3 wickets

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Ahmedabad, , In the Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Thursday, with the help of Shashank Singh’s unbeaten 61 runs and Ashutosh Sharma’s 31 runs, Punjab Kings (PBKS) defeated the host Gujarat Titans (GT) by three wickets with one ball to spare. Defeated by wicket.

Chasing the difficult target of 200 runs, Punjab Kings’ opener started aggressively and scored 13 runs in the very first over of Azmatullah Umarzai. Bairstow, known for his batting ability, cut the first ball to backward point and then crossed the boundary through cover.
As soon as Umesh Yadav took the wicket of in-form Shikhar Dhawan from the inside edge, the Ahmedabad crowd jumped with joy. Captain Dhawan was out after scoring just one run. Prabhsimran Singh came at number four and got out with a single through cover. A very eventful second over of the innings ended with a four, as Prabhsimran hit a boundary from Yadav through sweeper cover off a quicker ball.
Yadav bowled his fourth and second over of the innings and scored 12 runs. Prabhasimran hit one four and one six in this over.
Rashid Khan was brought in in the fifth over of the innings and he scored nine runs including one four. Bairstow looked aggressive against the pacers, so captain Gill brought spinners from both ends. Left-arm chinaman Noor Ahmed took a big wicket. He dismissed Bairstow’s middle leg stump for 22 runs. The home crowd roared once again as Noor lofted the ball up and smashed it wide of length outside leg. Bairstow completely missed the line of the ball and left a gap between the bat and the pad and the ball went through it and hit the back pad to shatter the stumps. Bairstow scored 22 runs in 13 balls. Prabhasimran Singh joined Sam Curran in the middle and continued to collect boundaries on loose balls and scored 35 runs in 24 balls. Noor once again increased the problems for Punjab Kings by taking the wicket of GT in his very next over. Prabhasimran, who was looking strong at the crease, became the victim of poor shot selection. Noor bowled the googly around middle and off, Prabhsimran was early in his shot and looked to sail across the line. He only managed to get the top edge and Mohit Sharma, fielding at short third, had to barely move his legs to complete the catch. With two new batsmen at the crease (Sikandar Raza and Curran), it was never going to be a good time for Punjab. Was not easy. Noor put pressure on the visiting team by taking two wickets in two overs. The required run rate (RRR) has already increased to 11 runs per over. Now the entire onus was on Curran, who played a match-winning inning of 63 runs for Punjab Kings against Delhi Capitals in the first match of IPL 2024. Under pressure from RRR, Umarzai took the big wicket of Curran. He bowled his second over and dismissed Curran. Curran looked to rotate and pull to take advantage of the space between deep square leg and long-on, but failed to gain the height and went straight to Kane Williamson fielding at short midwicket and was out for 5. Umesh Yadav was brought back into the attack and Shashank scored 17 runs in his over. After three singles from the first three balls, the batsman got 4, 6, 4 from the next three balls. Struggling Raza was out for 15 while attempting to chip a full-length delivery over cover. The star performer for Punjab was debutant Shashank Singh, who continued to hit boundaries and keep the visitors in the game. Jitesh Sharma came at number seven and was out with one run. However, the turning point of the game came in the last over of Rashid’s spell, when Jitesh hit back-to-back sixes before being out on the very next ball, leaving him with 16 runs in 8 balls. But still Punjab had the upper hand and Shashank Singh timed the ball very well. Punjab included their impact player Ashutosh Sharma in place of Arshdeep Singh, who is playing for the first time. When 41 runs were needed from 18 balls, Sharma hit Umarzai for two consecutive fours and then hit a four on the last ball as well. It was a big over, yielding 18 runs for Punjab, who needed 25 runs from the last 12 balls. Shashank Singh scored his first IPL half-century in just 25 balls. The drama continued when Darshan Nalkande, bowling his first over of the match, took the prized wicket of Ashutosh Sharma and the batsman dismissed him straight to long-off. Brief Score: Gujarat Giants 199/4 in 20 overs (Shubman Gill 89 not out, Sai Sudarshan 33, Kagiso Rabada 2-44, Harpreet Brar 1-33) lost to Punjab Kings 200/7 in 19.5 overs (Shashank Singh 61 not out, Prabhasimran Leo) 35; Noor Ahmed 2-32, Darshan Nalkande 1-6) by three wickets.–IANS

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