Ravichandran Ashwin brutally attacked former England National Cricket Team star batsman Kevin Pietersen after a world record chase was completed at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on April 26 during the game between Punjab Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders.
Punjab Kings won the toss and elected to play first in the match. They made one change to the playing XI by bringing in Jonny Bairstow in place of Liam Livingstone. KKR also made one change by replacing the injured Mitchell Starc with Dushmantha Chameera.
Batting first, Kolkata Knight Riders openers Phil Salt and Sunil Narine demolished the Punjab Kings bowling attack. They played attacking cricket during their stay in the middle. After Phil Salt (75) and Sunil Narine (71) got out, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell and Shreyas Iyer came and made quick runs to take KKR to the highest ever score at Eden Gardens – 261/6.
Chasing the target, Jonny Bairstow and Prabhsimran Singh laid the foundation for victory by playing an attacking brand of cricket. The duo took the players to the cleaners and made sure PBKS stayed in the game. Prabhsimran got out after scoring 54, but Jonny Bairstow remained unbeaten till the end. The England batsman scored a brutal 108 runs and Shashank Singh scored a sensational 68 runs as PBKS achieved the biggest run chase in the history of T20 cricket with 8 wickets in hand and 8 balls remaining.
Speaking during the on-air match, Kevin Pietersen said the boundaries at Eden Gardens are normal size and Ravichandran Ashwin took to X to react to his statement with laughing emojis.
“The commentator just said that these are normal size limits in the Gardens of Eden,” Ravichandran Ashwin pointed out Kevin Pietersen’s on-air comments and posted them on his official X account.
The commenter just said that these are normal size limits at Eden Gardens😂😂😂. #KKRvsPBKS
-Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) April 26, 2024
Before the historic chase started by PBKS, the record of most successful chase in IPL was with Rajasthan Royals in IPL and South Africa in T20 cricket.
The highest goals successfully pursued in the IPL
262 – PBKS v KKR, Kolkata, 2024
224 – RR v PBKS, Sharjah, 2020
224 – RR v KKR, Kolkata, 2024
219 – MI vs CSK, Delhi, 2021
Higher goals successfully pursued in men’s T20 cricket
262 – Punjab Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders, Kolkata, IPL 2024
259 – South Africa vs West Indies, Centurion, 2023
253 – Middlesex vs Surrey, The Oval, T20 Blast 2023
244 – Australia vs New Zealand, Auckland, 2018
243 – Bulgaria vs Serbia, Sofia, 2022
He has given me complete freedom: Shashank Singh on PBKS coach
Speaking after the match, one of Punjab Kings’ heroes in the dull IPL 2024 campaign, Shashank Singh, said that he knew the ball was going well with the bat and he was ready to bowl the bowlers. He said:
“When I was in the dug-out I was just watching the pitching behavior, I felt it was going well with a good bounce. I just stepped back to hit the other players, I was happy to take Narine’s singles and doubles, we wanted to play with him .
Shashank Singh revealed that PBKS coach Trevor Bayliss has given him complete freedom to play his natural game. Shashank Singh also praised Jonny Bairstow and said that they can still qualify for the playoffs.
“He’s given me complete freedom (over coach Trevor Bayliss), he’s told me to play however I can. It’s very positive when Jonny (Bairstow) supports you (from the other side), he’s played 100 Test matches and he’s seen you clap, you will feel happy and vindicated. We still have 5 games left, we will go game by game and I think we can still qualify for the playoffs.”