Punjab Kings captain Mayank Agarwal believes they bowled exceedingly well against Gujarat Titans after they win convincingly by eight wickets at the Dr. DY Sports Academy, Mumbai on Tuesday.
Punjab Kings were able to restrict Gujarat Titans at a below-par score of 143-8 after Hardik Pandya won the toss and decided to bat first.
Shubman Gill was run-out by Rishi Dhawan and then Kagiso Rabada accounted for in-form Wriddhiman Saha to push GT on the ropes in the powerplay overs. Hardik Pandya then got an outside edge against Rishi Dhawan while Miller was dismissed by Livingstone to put GT at 67-4.
Gujarat Titans kept losing wickets at regular intervals and couldn’t achieve any kind of momentum in their innings. Kagiso Rabada was the pick of the PBKS bowlers as he returned with impressive figures of 4-33 in his quota of four overs. Furthermore, Arshdeep Singh, Rishi Dhawan, and Liam Livingstone scalped one wicket apiece whereas Sandeep Sharma bowled an economical spell (4-0-17-0).
On the other hand, Shikhar Dhawan played a fine knock of unbeaten 62 runs whereas Bhanuka Rajapaksa continued to impress as he scored 40 runs. The left-handed duo added 87 runs for the second wicket alliance and it was a crucial partnership in the run-chase. Moreover, Liam Livingstone smashed 30 runs off just 10 balls to add the finishing touches and helped his team improve their NRR.
Mayank Agarwal said in the post-match presentation, “We would like to string a few (wins), no better time than getting a few wins back-to-back. We are trying to get the best out of Jonny. He’s done well opening. I said, ‘It’s okay, I’ll bat at four, I’ll anchor the innings at four’. With Livi it was clear, Shikhar to bat through and Livi could go out and play the way he wants to play. It was nice the way he played, got the score quickly. When we got to that position, two points are almost clear, if we can score it as quickly as possible, we could also improve the Net Run-Rate. I thought we bowled exceedingly well, we got early wickets and choked them in the middle. That really helped us to restrict them to a below-par score. The partnership between Shikhar and Bhanu was crucial for us.”
Punjab Kings haven’t been able to win two matches on the bounce in the ongoing season and they will look to build the winning momentum at the crucial stage of the tournament. Their bowlers were right on the money against Gujarat Titans and this win will surely give them a lot of confidence.
Punjab Kings will next face Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Saturday.
