Punjab Kings skipper Shikhar Dhawan admitted they were not up to the mark against Mumbai Indians while defending a par score of 214 runs at their home ground of IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali on Wednesday. MI made short work of the total as they won by six wickets and with seven balls to spare.
After Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bowl first, PBKS batters were able to find their timing on a belter of a pitch. Prabhsimran Singh was dismissed early but Shikhar Dhawan and Matthew Short added 49 runs for the second wicket.
Liam Livingstone was able to hit the ground running and played at the top of his game. The Englishman timed the ball perfectly and took the attack against MI bowlers from the get-go. The right-hander scored 82 runs from 42 balls whereas Jitesh Sharma, promoted in the batting order, continued to impress as he smashed 49 runs from 27 balls.
However, Punjab Kings bowlers could not hit the right areas and they were taken to the cleaners by MI batters. Ishan Kishan scored 75 runs from 41 balls and gave a blistering start to his team in the powerplay overs.
Furthermore, Suryakumar Yadav continued his excellent form as he played a fine knock of 66 runs from 31 balls with the help of eight fours and two sixes. Subsequently, Tilak Varma (26 off 10) and Tim David (19 off 10) added the finishing touches.
On the other hand, Arshdeep Singh could not get going and he was taken for 66 runs in the 3.5 overs he bowled, which is his most expensive spell in the IPL.
Shikhar Dhawan said in the post-match presentation, “We started off quite well and thought that was a very good total but unfortunately we could not defend it. I feel that, of course Rishi bowled really well, but from the other end, we bowled outside the off stump quite a bit and we should have bowled on off in the powerplay.”
He added, “And then Ishan and Surya just took the game away. We should have bowled tighter lines. Because we saw the wicket and saw it’s a very good wicket, we thought change of pace will work a lot and I feel Nathan bowled really well but other bowlers didn’t step up today. There was dew on the field and the wicket got a bit better, I felt that if one spinner gets hit then it gets hard to contain runs.”
Punjab Kings will next take on Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
