Chennai, Apr 30: After Prabhsimran Singh’s 42 off 24, and Liam Livingstone’s 40 off 24, Sikandar Raza stole the show by taking three runs off the final delivery to take Punjab Kings (PBKS) to a four-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL 2023 match here at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday.
Devon Conway’s sublime innings of unbeaten 92 off 52, Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 37 off 31 and MS Dhoni’s consecutive sixes off the last two balls CSK posted 200/4 after opting to bat first.
In reply, PBKS started in fine fashion with skipper Shikhar Dhawan and Prabhsimran going after the pacers and the pair added on 50 runs before Dhawan got out and King posted 62/1 at the end of the Power-play.
Punjab then lost a couple of wickets in quick succession before Liam Livingstone teed off. Afterwards, Sam Curran and Jitesh Sharma took the game deep before Sikandar Raza somehow managed to get the win off the final delivery, that too without hitting a boundary in the final over.
Chasing a 201-run target, Shikhar Dhawan and Prabhsimran Singh got PBKS off to a flier before Tushar Deshpande struck in the fourth over to get rid of the skipper for 28.
When Prabhsimran was looking dangerous with his calculated hits and was close to his fifty, Ravindra Jadeja removed the set batter in the ninth over. Prabhsimran stepped out to go big but missed as the ball turned away and landed in Dhoni’s gloves, who cheekily waited for a moment before flicking the bails off.
An over later, Jadeja picked up his second wicket, removing Atharva Taide. The latter stepped down the track and looked to flat-bat it back past the bowler but mistimed the shot and ended up hitting it right back at Jadeja, who took it around his chest.
With 13 runs per over needed to win, Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran held the fort and kept the scoreboard ticking to keep Punjab in the game. In the 16th over, Livingstone hammered Deshpande for two consecutive sixes, followed by a boundary and another maximum but the bowler was quick to bounce back as he removed Livingstone on the last ball of the over.