Shikhar Dhawan-led Punjab Kings (PBKS) lost by 4 wickets against Faf du Plessis-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the 6th match of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) on March 25 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
RCB won the toss and opted to bowl first in the match. The bowlers did a good job at the beginning but lost a lot of runs at the end of the innings. At the beginning of the innings, PBKS batsmen could not get going and could not play an attacking style of cricket.
Shikhar Dhawan scored 45 runs off 37 balls and his innings consisted of 5 fours and 1 six, while Prabhsimran Singh (25), Liam Livingstone (17), Sam Curran (23) and Jitesh Sharma (27) made significant contributions.
However, in the end, Shashank Singh launched an attack on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru bowlers and smashed 21 runs off 8 balls to help PBKS score 176/6 on the board.
Chasing the goal, Virat Kohli He showed his true class and single-handedly brought his team closer to victory and scored 77 runs off 49 balls.
In the end, Dinesh Karthik played an exceptional cameo of 28 runs and was well supported by Mahipal Lomror (17) as Royal Challengers Bengaluru won the match by 4 wickets.
Speaking during the post-match presentation ceremony, Shikhar Dhawan said that he was unable to utilize the powerplay, which resulted in Punjab Kings registering 10-15 fewer runs on the board as a target for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. He said:
“It was a good game, we recovered the game and lost it again. We scored 10-15 runs less, in the first six overs I played a little slow. Those 10-15 runs cost us and so did the missed catch.”
While talking about the turning point of the match, Shikhar decided to put all the blame on England player Jonny Bairstow, who dropped Virat Kohli’s catch in the first over of the second innings off a Sam Curran delivery. He said:
“(Turning point) Virat scored about 70 runs and we dropped a catch from the class player, we paid the price. If we had taken that catch, the momentum would have come from the second ball. But we lost momentum there and we paid the price for it.”
The match lasted till the end, in the end we could have bowled a little better too – Shikhar Dhawan
Shikhar Dhawan further said that a two-pace wicket was on offer in the match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. The Punjab Kings captain expressed his disappointment over the performance of his bowlers but was more or less satisfied with the way he batted in the match. He said:
“It looked good but it wasn’t a very real wicket, it stopped, did a bit of double bounce and also turned. 70% was going well, 30% was working a little. I’m happy with my runs but I thought I could have bowled a bit quicker in the first six overs, that’s the only thing I felt. We also lost wickets, we lost two wickets continuously and that put pressure on us. In the end, that is the total we think of on this wicket. The game lasted until the end and in the end we could have played a little better too.”
Shikhar Dhawan concluded his post-match presentation ceremony by talking about spinner Harpreet Brar, who bowled exceptionally well and bagged two wickets for 13 runs in his quota of 4 overs. He stated:
“(On Harpreet Brar) He is pitching very well, especially against lefties, tremendous the way he absorbed the pressure and allowed us to advance. It’s a big thing in Punjab, the Kabaddi thing, people really connect with that thigh five, happy to see it.Let him do it.”