IPL 2022, PBKS vs GT, Top Performances: Kagiso Rabada's 4-33, Shikhar Dhawan-Bhanuka Rajapaksa 87-run stand and Sai Sudharsan's 65 are the top performances.
Brief Scores: PBKS 145-2 (Dhawan 62*, Rajapaksa 40, Livingstone 30*, Ferguson 1-29) beat GT 143-8 (Sudharsan 65*, Rabada 4-33, Rishi Dhawan 1-26) by 8 wickets
Player of the Match: Kagiso Rabada (4-33 in his four overs)
Eighth-ranked Punjab Kings (PBKS) locked horns with Gujarat Titans (GT), who were sitting at the top of the table, at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday evening.
In their last meeting, the Titans, shouldering on the two back-to-back sixes from Rahul Tewatia off the last two balls of the game, snatched victory which was in the grasp of Punjab.
Gujarat captain, Hardik Pandya won the toss and decided to bat first, expecting the track to be same over the course of the game without much dew. Both sides had retained the same playing eleven.
Punjab Kings end Gujarat Titan’s winning streak with a walk in the park
The Titans never got off to a start losing both of their openers inside the powerplay with just 42 runs on the board. There was a phase of 47 deliveries till the middle of the 12th over mark where not a single boundary was recorded. They also lost their captain, Hardik Pandya and David Miller. Rahul Tewatia too failed to fire but 20-year-old Sai Sudharsan, on the back of his maiden IPL fifty took GT to 143/8 in their 20 overs.
Punjab Kings didn’t make a good start losing their opener, Jonny Bairstow. Although Shikhar Dhawan, who scored an unbeaten 62 runs in 53 balls, stitched a match-winning 87-run stand with Bhanuka Rajapaksa, who provided Dhawan great support with his personal 40 runs. Later, Liam Livingstone with his humongous sixes chased down the score with eight wickets in hand in just 16 overs.
Let’s scan the top three performances from the game between GT and PBKS.
Kagiso Rabada fire burnt Titans
South Africa’s premier bowler Kagiso Rabada, whom Punjab bagged for INR 9.25 crores in an intense bidding war with Gujarat Titans during the auction, has picked up four crucial wickets to seize the table-topper’s batting show.
In his second over, just after going for a six, Rabada with a cross-seam delivery got rid of Wriddhiman Saha, who was batting freely in the powerplay. It was the second time Rabada dismissed Saha besides being hit at a strike rate of 181 in IPL history.
Rahul Tewatia, who back in 2020 with his turnaround innings of 53 in 31 balls for Rajasthan Royals blew away Punjab, was on the crease when Agarwal called back Rabada who straightaway with a good length wide delivery sent Tewatia back in the hut for a personal score of 11. It was the third time Rabada dismissed Tewatia for the cost of just 20 runs in 16 balls in IPL.
On the very next ball, Rashid Khan drew forward to edge the ball to the wicketkeeper as Rabada, for the second time got the better of Rashid who had just 11 runs in seven balls against the pacer in IPL. Rabada went on to add Lockie Ferguson in his wicket’s column finishing with 4-33 in four overs. It was Rabada’s sixth IPL 4-wicket haul in just 59 games.
Read More: IPL 2022, RCB vs GT, Top Performances: Tewatia-Miller 79* stand gives GT 8th win; RCB face trial now
Dhawan-Rajapaksa partnership seals the game for Punjab
Punjab lost their new opener, Jonny Bairstow early in the innings with just 10 on the board when Sri Lankan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa joined Shikhar Dhawan at the crease.
Both of them began to score runs without much pressure and took on the bowlers from the start. Punjab reached 43-1 after the powerplay. The seventh over, bowled by Pradeep Sangwan, went for 15 runs; till then, Dhawan had busted 49 IPL runs off Sangwan in just 30 balls without being dismissed in IPL.
Rajapaksa too, from the other end, was providing his partner good support as Dhawan deposited his 47th IPL fifty in just 38 balls. Rajapaksa, just two balls later, after launching a six over the fine leg fence was dismissed for 40 in just 28 balls.
The duo stitched an 87-run partnership in just 58 balls to make the chase comfortable for Punjab Kings as Dhawan with his 62* helped them grab victory. This was Dhawan’s 21st unbeaten 50+ score in IPL, which is second in the list after AB de Villiers (23).
Read More: IPL 2022, LSG vs PBKS, Top Performances: Chameera 2-17, Krunal 2-11 suffocate PBKS; LSG at 3
Young Sai Sudharsan maiden IPL fifty fired Titans to a respectable score
Gujarat Titans in the auction picked up 20-year-old Sai Sudharsan from Tamil Nadu for just INR 20 lakhs. He milked 358 runs in eight innings at an average of 71.60 and strike rate of 143.77 to finish as the second-highest run scorer during the 2021 Tamil Nadu Premier League.
The left-hander who came to the crease in the third over of the game, began his innings cautiously to understand the behaviour of the 22-yard strip and stopped the flow of wickets, scoring just 31 off his first 30 balls. Off the 33rd ball, Sudharsan cracked his first boundary of the evening before registering his maiden IPL half-century in 42 deliveries with a huge six over the mid-wicket region.
He did speed up later with few more cracking boundaries to take Gujarat to a respectable score of 143. The fall of wickets at one end and the fact of how hard run-scoring was on the track with the balls gripping a lot raised the importance of the knock.
Read More: IPL 2022, GT vs SRH, Top Performances: Tewatia-Rashid blast takes GT to no 1; Umran fifer in vain
TATA IPL 2022 Points Table
What’s to come
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will lock horns at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune on May 4 in the 49th game of IPL 2022.
Here are some the top twitter reactions as Punjab Kings (PBKS) beat Gujarat Titans (GT) in 48th game of IPL 2022 and move to 5th place.
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