On Friday night at Eden Gardens, Punjab Kings (PBKS) re-wrote the record books with a jaw-dropping chase of 262 against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). After being asked to bat first, the hosts looked in a comfortable position after the end of the powerplay.
PBKS' stand-in skipper, Sam Curran, was awe-struck with the kind of hitting taking place in this format, especially regularly. Curran believes that the game is turning into baseball,
"Cricket is turning into baseball, isn't it? It was incredible, Where do we [start]? Delighted with two points. Games like that are out of the world, but most importantly we've had a tough few weeks as a team [this was the Kings' first win in five games] but we've hung in there. We've taken teams down to the wire and, I think, forget about the scores. I thought we deserved victory," Curran said at the post-match presentation.
KKR seemed to have the game under their belt after posting a monumental 261/6, powered by blazing half-centuries from openers Phil Salt (75) and Sunil Narine (71). However, PBKS had other ideas, led by a brilliant 108* off just 48 balls from Jonny Bairstow. His assault was nicely supported by Prabhsimran Singh's 54 off 20 and Shashank Singh's 68* off 28 as they chased down the target with eight balls to spare and won the game by eight wickets.
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Really pleased for Jonny: Sam Curran
The English opener Bairstow marked his return to the PBKS XI with a career-defining innings. Having been dropped after a poor run, Bairstow smashed eight boundaries and nine sixes. His 93-run opening stand with Prabhsimran set the stage for the record chase.
Curran praised his fellow countrymen for his exceptional knock to take the side over the rope, "Really pleased for Jonny. He's been on tour for a long time. A couple of games out of the side, he looked like he came back really eager to score runs for the team and showed what an amazing player he is. So, I'm pleased for him," Curran said.
While Bairstow was the headliner, the 32-year-old Shashank Singh (68 0ff 28) continued his breakthrough season with yet another explosive cameo. His 84-run stand with Bairstow proved to be the final nail in KKR's coffin.
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The all-rounder also heaped praises on Singh who has been having a great run in the ongoing IPL. "We gave him that extra bit of responsibility to go in and No. 4 and he's been the find of the season for us. Him and Ashutosh [Sharma] have been incredible and I'm just really pleased," Curran concluded.
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