Punjab Kings, an IPL franchise co-owned by Preity Zinta has set the T20 cricket World shaking with its record-breaking performance against Shahrukh Khan and Juhi Chawla’s Kolkata Knight Riders. The 42nd match of the Indian Premier League left the spectators jaw-dropped with the show of raining sixes in Eden Garden on Friday night. As the teams of SRK and Preity Zinta locked horns, fans called it a ‘Veer-Zara’ showdown.
The exceptional display of playing skills by Punjab not only made its fans sing praises for them but also made other cricket fans appreciate them. Punjab chased a massive score of 261 in just 18.4 overs scripting history. This was the most successful run chase ever in the history of T20 World Cricket. Though it was a night for KKR’s fans to forget, SRK was also seen clapping for the blockbuster celluloid presented by both teams.
Quick highlights of the Match between the Kings and Knights
The match commenced with Punjab winning the toss and elected to bowl first. The openers of KKR lit the stadium with their fiery knock which made them muster a high total of 76 runs in the powerplay. Run rate of the partnership between Salt and Narine this season was the second highest for any opening pair to have faced at least 120 balls. Narine scored 71 off 32 while he smashed 4 sixes and creamed 9 fours.
Along with him in the same gear, Salt knocked 75 off 37 with 6 sixes and 6 fours. The skipper of KKR, Shreyas Iyer also played a captaincy inning with batting on a strike rate of 280, he sent 3 balls to the stands and creamed a four to contribute 28 runs off 10 balls to his team. Along with them, Venkateshwar Iyer and Andre Russell also pooled in significant runs to the team, 39 and 24 respectively. KKR’s batter smashed a total of 18 sixes and 22 fours mustering a good score of 261 for kings to chase.
Punjab’s bowlers were successfully bagging 6 wickets of KKR. Rahul Chahar turned out to be most economical with an economy of and also gave kings a sigh of relief as he broke the destructive opening partnership by sending Narine back to the dugout. The skipper Sam Curran sent back the other opener and his fellow England teammate P. Salt to the pavilion after 12.3 overs. Harshal Patel also took Rinku Singh‘s wicket which earned him his Purple Cap. Arshdeep took two crucial wickets of Andre Russell and Shreyas Iyer while Venkateshwar Iyer was run out by Jitesh Sharma.
The second inning saw an over-destructive batting of the kings where the audience was brought to the edge of their seat as one could only witness raining sixes from each side of the pitch. PBKS smoked a total of 24 sixes and 15 fours belittling the effect made by the batters of Kolkata.
The blistering opening partnership of Prabhsimran and Jonny Bairstow have a wonderful start to the team with Simran quickly reaching his 4 plus half century in just 20 balls after he smashed 4 fours and 5 astonishing sixes. He also earned the trophy of ‘Player of the match’ for his outstanding performance. Rilee Rossouw was also seen on the field for a while but helped the team with 26 runs – 2 sixes and 1 four.
The main destruction was caused by the duo of Jonny Bairstow and Shashank Singh. Bairstow was seen batting on the fifth gear as he completed his century plus 8 runs in just 48 balls. He smoked 9 towering sixes and 8 fabulous fours leaving everyone dumbstruck. Rallying behind him, the sensation of PBKS, Shashank Singh showcased his amazing batting skills as he took the whole stadium on a thrilling journey of bursting fireworks of 8 sixes and 2 fours. Shashank also completed his half century and scored 68 runs off just 28 balls. Irfan Pathan was also all praises for the masterclass performance of Shashank.
Shashank singh what a buy it is turning out for Punjab 👏
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 26, 2024
It was a night to forget for the bowlers of KKR as they could only bag 2 wickets. One was taken by Sunil Narine of Rilee Rossouw and the other by run out of Prabhsimran. S. Narine turned most economical with an economy of 6.00.
Let’s see how many records were broken and made in a single day!
Punjab Kings made the highest ever run chase in Men’s T20 cricket after scoring a total of 262/2. The team has 7, with the highest number of successful 200+ runs chases in all T20s.
All the four openers smashed half centuries in the same IPL match for the first time. 5 fifties were scored in 25 balls or fewer in a men’s T20 for the first time. Both the teams also made a record of highest number of sixes in a single T20 match – 42. While Punjab made a record by scoring highest number of sixes in a single inning – 24.
This season of IPL has been the quintessential of ‘expect the unexpected ‘ as fans witness records being made and broken on a daily basis. The batting skills of batters leaving the bowlers scratching their heads and 250+ being a normal score, fans have now seen everything. With SRH making a colossal score of 287 tumbling down all the records, teams have hit 260 or more as many as 7 times in IPL 2024. Many fans are discussing the dominance of bat over ball leaving bowlers jobless. Over 700 sixes have been hit so far this season. Teams have gone past the 200-run mark 24 times so far.
