Sam Curran, the interim captain of PBKS, was astounded by the calibre of hitting that occurs in this format, particularly on a regular basis. Curran thinks the game is becoming more like baseball.
Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) rewrote the record books on Friday night at Eden Gardens with an incredible chase of 262. Following the conclusion of the powerplay, the hosts appeared to be in a good position after being called to bat first.
“Isn’t baseball becoming more and more like cricket? It was amazing. How should we [get started]? Happy to have two points. These kinds of games are unreal, but more significantly, as a team, we’ve had a difficult few weeks [this was the Kings’ first victory in five games] and we’ve persevered. We’ve pushed teams to the brink and, I believe, ignored the results. At the post-match press conference, Curran stated, “I felt we deserved to win.
After amassing an incredible 261/6, led by scorching half-centuries from openers Phil Salt (75) and Sunil Narine (71), KKR appeared to have the match under control. But PBKS had other ideas, spearheaded by Jonny Bairstow’s outstanding 108* off just 48 balls. Shashank Singh’s 68* off 28 and Prabhsimran Singh’s 54 off 20 provided excellent support for his onslaught as they chased down the mark with eight balls remaining and won the match by eight wickets.
Extremely happy for Jonny: Sam Curran
With a career-defining knock, English opener Bairstow celebrated his return to the PBKS XI. Bairstow, who had been dropped following a subpar run, hit nine sixes and eight boundaries. The stage was set for the record chase by his opening stand of 93 runs with Prabhsimran.
“Really pleased for Jonny,” Curran said, praising his fellow countrymen for his outstanding knock to take the side over the rope. He’s been travelling for a while now. After being out of the lineup for a few games, he appeared to be anxious to rejoin the squad and proved what a fantastic player he is. Thus, I’m happy for him,” Curran remarked.
Even though Jonny Bairstow was the star of the show, 32-year-old Shashank Singh (68 0ff 28) maintained his incredible comeback season. His partnership of 84 runs with Bairstow turned out to be the icing on the cake for KKR.
The all-rounder gave Singh a lot of compliments as well because he has been playing well in the current IPL. “He has been the discovery of the season for us, and we gave him that extra bit of responsibility to go in and No. 4.” Curran said, “He and Ashutosh [Sharma] have been amazing, and I’m just really happy.”
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