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Where is cricket heading? From an entertainment point of view, Punjab King’s victory over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens was a blockbuster, but from a bowler’s point of view, what was that? Previously, scoring 220 runs seemed more than enough at any venue in India, but tonight KKR’s 261 too wasn’t enough to stop Punjab’s juggernaut. Is it a good sign for cricket? Will it push youngsters to take up the ball? Too many questions, but who will answer?
However, no one can take anything away from Punjab’s record-breaking chase in IPL. Batting first, the hosts started brilliantly, as both Phil Salt and Sunil Narine wreaked havoc in the powerplay. Salt smashed 75 runs off 32 balls, while Narine hit 71 runs off 32 deliveries, as KKR were in a very good position at one point. Later on, Andre Russell and Shreyas Iyer played quick cameos as KKR posted 261 runs on the board, which according to Shreyas was good enough to win.
When it came to the chase, Prabhsimrah Singh and Jonny Bairstow didn’t give KKR bowlers any room to feel relaxed. They hit 93 runs in the powerplay, which set the tone for the night. Bairstow went on to smash his second century in the IPL, while Shashank made 68* runs off 28 balls as Punjab won by eight wickets with eight balls remaining. Like asked before, where is cricket heading? How soon will we see 300 being chased in T20 cricket? Well, time has all the answers.
1. Knightmare for the bowlers
A total of 523 runs were scored in 38.4 overs at the Eden. Carnage seems to be an understatement. However, how does one motivate the bowlers to recover from this and play again in 2–3 days? BCCI and the pitch curators need to work together in order to produce better pitches which favour the bowlers and not make highways. Cricket is unfortunately turning out to be a batter’s game.
2. Narine fighting for Orange Cap
Ahead of IPL 2024, no one in their wildest dreams could have told that Narine would fight for the Orange Cap after the halfway mark in the tournament. Well, it’s IPL and anything can happen in this tournament. He made 71 runs against PBKS and currently has 357 runs to his name in eight matches and is currently behind Virat Kohli in the Orange Cap race.
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3. Bairstow blitzkrieg
Bairstow scoring a century will boost his confidence, as the Englishman was going through an extremely tough phase. He made his return back to the squad against KKR and made 108* runs off 48 deliveries to help PBKS win pretty comfortably. Other batters supported him well in the middle as Punjab created history at Eden.
Losing skipper Shreyas Iyer said:
I would have (taken 260 at the start of the day). The way the batters batted was tremendous to see, Sunny coming in.. the way Salt batted, they delivered and it was a treat for the eyes. Both the teams played tremendously, one of those games where you go back to the drawing board and see where it went wrong especially not being able to defend 260. We have to sum up the conditions and come up with better ideas. It is brilliant to see him (Narine) go out there and strike the ball, hopefully he keeps continuing with such performances.
Winning skipper Sam Curran said:
I would have (taken 260 at the start of the day). The way the batters batted was tremendous to see, Sunny coming in.. the way Salt batted, they delivered and it was a treat for the eyes. Both the teams played tremendously, one of those games where you go back to the drawing board and see where it went wrong especially not being able to defend 260. We have to sum up the conditions and come up with better ideas. It is brilliant to see him (Narine) go out there and strike the ball, hopefully he keeps continuing with such performances.
Player of the Match Jonny Bairstow said:
We got off to a good start. That was the key. They got off to a good start as well thanks to Sunil. You have to take risks. Sometimes luck will go your way. Some days it won't be your day. Tried to whack it as far as possible. If it is in your area, you had to go. We had a couple of quiet overs when it was Sunil. Shashank Singh is a special player. The knowledge he has had been amazing. How clean he hit it! Was indeed very special.
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