Winning the toss and electing to field first with the thought of capitalizing on the dew backfired for Sam Curran and Punjab Kings as Sunil Narine and Phil Salt, the KKR openers, ripped apart the the touring pacers. The tag team amassed 76 runs in the powerplay, eventually leading to a 138 runs opening stand. At once, Narine’s score read 30-ball 70 before holing out to Jonny Bairstow at long on in the eleventh over. Almost two overs later, Salt’s blitzkreig concluded with Sam Curran cleaning him up for 37-ball 75. Soon after, Andre Russell was promoted to No. 4 and the all-rounder departed after a quickfire 24 as part of a 43-run stand in just 18 balls. With the score reading 246/4 and nine balls in hand, the KKR middle order possessed enough firepower to post 261 runs on board. 

Similar to their oppositions, the Kings got off to a flying start, courtesy of Prabhsimran Singh and Jonny Bairstow’s assault against the new ball. The former opted an no holds barred intent, leading to 69 runs in five overs with Prabhsimran scoring 54 off it. Subsequently, KKR summoned Anukul Roy as an impact sub but Bairstow greeted him with three fours and a couple of sixes before the uncapped opener fell prey to a run out off his risky call, summing for a 93-run powerplay. Rilee Rossouw played second fiddle to Bairstow who continued the run-scoring spree with the KKR bowlers missing their mark. Although Narine outsmarted Rossouw in the 13th over, the score already read 178 with eight wickets in hand. The tactic to promote Shashank Singh catalysed PBKS’ chase as he peppered the KKR bowlers left, right and center. The visitors raced to 200 runs in 15 overs. In the next over, Bairstow hurled to a 45-ball century, followed by 43 runs between 17-18 overs, curtailing the equation to nine required off the last two overs. Eventually, a 262-run target chase was overhauled with eight balls to spare, leading to the highest-ever successful chase in IPL history.

Not CSK,MI,SRH or KKR, 

Punjab has been the most entertaining team of this season.#IPL2024

— Nishanth alagu (@Nishanthalagu94) April 26, 2024

LOL!

Bairstow #KKRvsPBKS pic.twitter.com/hWLAJWcQi3

— Jenchaejisa (@jenchaejisa) April 26, 2024

Phew absolute mad hitting!

Shashank singh wow. What a shot

— G⚡️ꜱʀᴋ ꜰᴀɴ (@gurdeep_0701) April 26, 2024

Hilarious!

Best find of #IPL2024 is #shashank ... Wow watta player... Hitting lik anything N timing lik anything.... Hitting sixes looks so easy to him #KKRvsPBKS

— SELVA (@Actionboy_U1) April 26, 2024