Sam Curran-led Punjab Kings (PBKS) took on Shubman Gill-led Gujarat Titans (GT) in match 37 of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) on Sunday, April 21 at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket. Stadium, Mullanpur, New Chandigarh.
Opting to bat first in the match, Punjab Kings batsmen looked clueless against the trio of Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmad and Rashid Khan. They were eventually bowled out for 142 and Prabhsimran Singh top-scored for them with 35 runs to his name.
When it came time to defend the target, Punjab Kings players gave their best and took the game deep but the target was too small to defend and GT completed the chase easily to win the match by 3 wickets. For PBKS, Harshal Patel picked three wickets, Liam Livingstone got two wickets, while Sam Curran and Arshdeep Singh got one wicket each.
Speaking after the match, Punjab Kings captain Sam Curran said they were 10-15 runs short in the match. However, he praised his players for showing fantastic fight. Sam Curran stated:
“I think so (we were missing 10-15). The effort with the ball was incredible, the commitment and the fight were incredible, but it was not enough.”
Sam Curran acknowledged that the Punjab Kings batsmen struggled against the GT spinners and opined that a total of around 160 could have won the match. Sam Curran lamented the fact that he had lost a bunch of wickets. He also said that they now have a clear goal of winning every game. Sam Curran said:
“Afghanistan’s spinners are world-class bowlers and Sai Kishore bowled very well, thanks to them. It’s the third time we used that pitch, anything above 160 would have been a full par, but we still fought well. “Prabhsimran played very well in the powerplay but unfortunately we lost a lot of wickets after that. Now we know what to do, we have to win every game.”
The results of the previous four matches between Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Gujarat Titans (GT)
Before the match in Chandigarh between Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Gujarat Titans (GT), the teams’ head-to-head record was 2-2. In their previous IPL 2024 match, Punjab Kings won an outright thriller against the IPL 2022 champions by 3 wickets with ball remaining on April 4.
Before that, they had faced each other in the Indian Premier League 2023 on April 13. In that match, Gujarat Titans recorded a 6-wicket win with one ball remaining in the match. Additionally, the two teams met twice in Gujarat Titans’ debut season in the 2022 Indian Premier League. In that season, GT defeated PBKS by 6 wickets in their first meeting on April 8, but the eventual champions of the competition faced an 8-wicket hammering at the hands of the Punjab-based franchise on May 3.