IPL 2023, RR vs PBKS | Who said what ft. Shikhar Dhawan, Sanju Samson

It was a delight for fans who like to see batters go big and some whacks out of the ground at Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati on Wednesday. Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) squared off in match no. 8 of the IPL 2023 and the contest turned out to be a high-scoring thriller, with the latter eventually winning the game by five runs. 

PBKS were invited to bat first and their openers were too good from the start. Prabhsimran Singh played an aggressive knock of 60 runs while Shikhar Dhawan played the role of a sheet anchor scoring an unbeaten 86-run knock. The game went down the wire in the second innings but Sam Curran bowled his last over with precision to restrict the opposition from chasing down the target. Nathan Ellis was the star bowler taking four wickets on a batting-friendly surface. 

Reflecting on the result, PBKS skipper Dhawan said that it was a collective effort from the team and also lauded Prabhsimran’s knock. 

There were some nervous moments, I was trying to keep my calm and discussing plans with my bowlers. Was happy with the score we put up. We scoring 197 and my bowlers giving those early wickets and then Nathan came in and bowled supebly. It was a full team effort. These 2 games we got a great start, Prabh did really well and I tried my best to increase my strike-rate. We want to keep the momentum going as we got a good batting line-up. We respect the opponents' bowlers but want to keep the intent and aggression going.

Shikhar Dhawan

Sanju Samson stated that the bowlers did well and also admitted that the team needs to be prepared better in case the dew factor comes into play. 

To be honest, it was a very good track to bat on, not much movement with the new ball and they batted really well, had the momentum in the powerplay. Our bowlers used the variations on a high-scoring wicket and I thought we did well to restrict them to 197. I was expecting the dew to come in the second innings, but it was evident that it was there right at the start, need to be prepared better for such things in the next game.

Sanju Samson

Nathan Ellis shined with the ball taking four scalps and conceding 30 runs in the game. The pacer revealed that he relied on variations and backed cross-seam bowling to do better.  

Just stoked to get the win, pleased to get some awards but from a team's point of view nice to get that win. In T20 every ball counts, staying in the moment is really the key. When I was bowling in the backend, I was trying to get my variations right and calculate what the best ball is at that time. For me it's cross-seam and it worked out really well tonight.

Nathan Ellis