Under the leadership of stand-in captain Sam Curran, Punjab Kings (PBKS) took on Hardik Pandya-led Mumbai Indians (MI) in match 33 of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) on Thursday, April 18 at the International Stadium Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Cricket Club, Mullanpur, New Chandigarh.
Punjab Kings won the toss and opted to bowl first in the match. They made a big change to their XI by removing Jonny Bairstow and replacing him with Rilee Rossouw. Bowling first, Kagiso Rabada managed to dismiss Ishan Kishan in the third over but then things did not go in his favor. Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma took the players to the cleaners and MI posted 192/7 on the board.
Chasing the target, Punjab Kings got off to a terrible start as they were reduced to 4-14. With PBKS losing quick wickets at regular intervals, the onus was on Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma to bat well and the duo did not disappoint. Ashutosh was the best player in the team as he scored a fantastic half-century, but lack of support from the other end meant that PBKS were bowled out for 183 and lost by 9 runs.
Speaking after the match, Sam Curran expressed his disappointment at losing another close match in the Indian Premier League. He, however, was very impressed with the duo of Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma for once again batting brilliantly in the match. Sam Curran explained:
“Another close game, I think this team likes close games, but unfortunately another loss. Another incredible knock from the youngster (on Ashutosh), but another close loss. It’s very difficult, you want to lose close games rather than get absolutely beaten , but we have lost a lot of wickets early on, the way the younger boys have brought the team so close is encouraging (over Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma).
“They have incredible confidence, you see a guy like Ashutosh have the confidence to take the sweeps and the big hits against the pacers, it’s great to see them in action.”
Sam Curran admitted they are disheartened after losing close games in a row, but said they still have the conviction to turn things around and come back strongly. Sam Curran said:
“It’s heartbreaking to lose close games, but there are a lot of positives in this team. We still have faith in ourselves, we believe we can turn this around, the sun will come out tomorrow and hopefully we’ll go on a winning streak.” “.
Punjab Kings current position in IPL 2024 standings and result of their previous match
Before the clash between Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians, the former were occupying the 8th position in the Indian Premier League 2024 points table with 2 wins and 4 points from 6 matches. Now after concluding the match against Mumbai Indians, they have dropped to ninth place.
In their previous match, Punjab Kings hosted Rajasthan Royals at home in the 27th match of the Indian Premier League on April 13. They lost the match in the last over by 3 wickets. Batting first, PBKS posted 147/8 on the board with three players – Ashutosh Sharma (31), Jitesh Sharma (29) and Liam Livingstone (21) – breaking the 20-run mark.
While defending the target, the Punjab Kings players did a good job and took the game to the last over. However, they were unsuccessful as on the penultimate ball of the match, RR completed the chase. For Punjab Kings, Sam Curran and Kagiso Rabada picked up two wickets each, while Harshal Patel, Liam Livingstone and Arshdeep Singh bagged one wicket each.