Punjab Kings Defeat Gujarat Titans By 3 Wickets: Punjab Kings defeated Gujarat Titans in Match 17 of IPL 2024 in what many would consider an upset. The Kings’ 3-wicket win came following a thrilling run chase led by the team’s newest star, Shashank Singh.
The match was being played in Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium and saw PBKS win the toss and chose to field first. That decision looked like the wrong one when the home side started blasting away from the very first over.
Punjab Kings Defeat Gujarat Titans By 3 Wickets
Wriddhiman Saha’s wicket at the end of the third over did not change the fact that the Titans had scored 29 in just three overs. Next came in Kane Williamson who played a very slow inning. But that was not much of a concern because Captain Shubman Gill looked like in prime form on the other end.
Things picked up following Williamson’s wicket as Sai Sudharsan had come in with one agenda in mind, pace up the run rate. When Sai was dismissed for 33-off-19, GT was 122/3 at the end of the 14th over.
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Vijay Shankar was sent next and departed after a disappointing innings. But as the Gujarat-based franchise was 164/4, Rahul Tewatia barged into the proceedings and scored a lightning 23-off-8. GT ended the innings n 199/4 as Gill was not out for 89-off-48.
Punjab Kings’ chase looked like it was eager to come off the rails right at the start, as Captain Shikhar Dhawan was bowled by Umesh Yadav for just 1. Jonny Bairstow and Prabhsimran Singh then stabilised the innings and took the score past 50 in the powerplay, but not before Bairstow was dismissed with the score being 48/2.
PBKS didn’t quite build a partnership following that. Singh was dismissed for 35 at the team score of 64, Sam Curran scored just 5 in 8 balls, and Sikandar Raza too made 15 at a below 100 strike rate.
At 111/5 in the 13th over, it seemed all over for the Kings with Shashank Singh and Jitesh Sharma on strike. It has been rumoured that Shashank was bought by PBKS in the auction by mistake, but that has been debunked the the franchise.
Whatever the case may be, this 32-year-old all-rounder from, Chattisgarh was set on etching his name in IPL history on this night. He took charge of the batting and was impressed with his shot-playing against the likes of Rashid Khan and Mohit Sharma. Even when Jitesh was dismissed at 150, Shashank built a partnership with Impact Player Ashutosh Sharma.
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The two men batted with a strike rate of over 180. While Ashutosh scored 31-off-17, Shashank Singh announced his presence to the cricketing world with a feisty half-century, scoring 61-off-29.
The drama continued in the last over. With 7 runs required, PBKS lost Ashutosh Sharma’s wicket on the first ball. But Harpreet Brar came onto the pitch and faced a wide, then took a run on the third delivery. Shashank then hit a 4 and brought the score level before taking a leg bye and winning the match for his side. For his heroics, Shashank was named the Player of the Match.
Having lost this match, Gujarat Titans are now on four points in four matches and sixth on the table. They will next face Lucknow Super Giants in Lucknow’s Rkana Stadium on April 7.
On the other hand, Punjab Kings are on four points in four matches as well but have leapt past GT to be fifth on the table. They will now face Sunrisers Hyderabad in their next match on April 9 in Mullanpur, Mohali’s Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium.
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