Punjab Kings captain Mayank Agarwal feels the target of 160 runs was chaseable against Delhi Capitals at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai on Monday. DC posted a fighting score of 159 runs after Agarwal won the toss and decided to put the opposition into bat.
At the mid-innings break, it was thought that Delhi Capitals might be 10-15 runs short of a par score. However, as the pitch was providing assistance to the spinners, PBKS was always going to have their work cut out in chasing down the score.
Punjab Kings were given a quick start by Jonny Bairstow, who scored a quickfire knock of 28 runs off just 15 balls. But PBKS lost wickets in a cluster to find themselves behind the eight ball. Shardul Thakur accounted for Shikhar Dhawan and Bhanuka Rajapaksa in the same over before Bairstow was dismissed by Anrich Nortje.
Axar Patel flummoxed PBKS captain Mayank Agarwal with a slider whereas Kuldeep Yadav got the big wicket of Liam Livingstone. Furthermore, Yadav and Patel dismissed Harpreet Brar and Rishi Dhawan respectively.
Jitesh Sharma, who has impressed with his batting skills in IPL 2022, showed some fight along with Rahul Chahar but both of them had too much to do in the end. DC went on to win by 17 runs and they have boosted their chances of qualifying for the playoff stages.
Mayank Agarwal was disappointed with the batting effort and believes they lost the game between overs 5-10 as they lost five wickets during that interval of play.
Agarwal said in the post-match presentation, “Between 5-10 we lost too many wickets and that’s where we lost the game. It was definitely chaseable for the batting we have, and the wicket wasn’t as bad as it seemed. There’s still a match to be played. Want to go out there and play the best cricket. Still haven’t played our best cricket and look forward to doing that in the last game.”
Punjab Kings will now need to win their last game to keep themselves alive in the tournament and also hope that other results go their way. PBKS will next face Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Sunday.
