This is the apex of the IPL! Two unfamiliar faces entered the game, witnessed, and won it for the Punjab Kings! In the 17th match of the Tata IPL, which took place on Thursday at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the visitors defeated the Gujarat Titans by three wickets thanks to a stunning comeback orchestrated by Ashutosh Sharma and Shashank Singh.
The Punjab Kings started their chase of 200 against the Gujarat Titans earlier in the evening. The visitors’ Power Play was a complete failure. First, Shikhar Dhawan, the captain of PBKS, was a big wicket by Gujarat Titans. Dhawan was removed by Umesh Yadav after just one run. Dhawan’s face was a picture of disappointment. Jonny Bairstow was the second to go. Prabhsimran Singh, Punjab’s most promising batsman, took the third wicket. At that point, GT was winning the game.
Like the Delhi Capitals, the batting lineup for the Punjab Kings had collapsed badly! The only difference was that PBKS was experiencing this failure as guests, whereas DC was the host. Punjab’s top order had already collapsed with half the innings gone, starting with Shikhar Dhawan and continuing with Bairstow, Prabhsimran, and now Sam Curran. The pressure on Punjab increased as a result of the rapidly increasing needed run rate, which exacerbated the problem. In the chase, the visitors drop two more wickets. Sikandar Raza and Jitesh Sharma both took wickets that could have altered the course of the match.
However, Punjab’s quiet tenacity and crucial collaboration with Ashutosh Sharma not only helped the visitors win the match spectacularly against Gujarat Titans, but they also enabled Punjab to get back into the game. Shashank Singh with his consecutive sixes and fours was a delight to the crowd and altered the course of play. Punjab Kings needed to beat the odds with the player they appeared to have purchased at the auction by mistake in order to have even a 9% chance of winning.
Less than four months prior, the Kings’ administration was gathered around the bidding table attempting to get rid of this individual. They later sent out a clarifying tweet, to which Shashank responded in an attempt to put an end to the rumours that were circulating. In a twist that the Indian Premier League ought to patent, the underdog club and their underdog acquisition both triumphed tonight despite overwhelming odds in a 200-run chase.
In a bowling first XI, Kings had five substitutions, but only two bats. It appeared to be an uneven choice. However, a major factor in their success was the man they selected to be the Impact Sub. Playing in just his 15th T20 of his career and his maiden IPL match, Ashutosh Sharma looked an equation that read 41 off 18 balls straight in the eye and dispatched it with merciless accuracy. In Azmatullah Omarzai’s eighteenth over, he hit three fours. Mohit added six more to begin the nineteenth. 34 runs were scored by the Kings in those 12 balls. The Kings’ chances of winning increased from 9.23% to 94.56% in those 12 balls.
When two players try to find the best boundary choice for each and every ball, this is what results. However, it was astonishing that they were both uncapped, had very little experience at this level of play (Shashank had played 13 IPL matches, but had only batted in eight of those with a best score of 25 before this), and were producing good performances even against bowlers of the Titans’ calibre.
Both Ashutosh (in the dying moments) and Shashank (before) blasted fours over the goalie. It lacked nerve. It was magnificent. And by the conclusion, Kings had achieved their sixth goal of 200 or more, setting a record for men’s T20.
