‌IPL 2024 | Twitter reacts to Curran denying Pant’s fairytale return at new home venue

‌IPL 2024 | Twitter reacts to Curran denying Pant’s fairytale return at new home venue

SportsCafe Desk

By SportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Punjab Kings kicked off the IPL 2024 campaign on a positive note after beating Delhi Capitals by four wickets at their new home in Mullanpur. Starts from Delhi’s top three were neutralised by impressive bowling while Sam Curran’s fifty coupled with Liam Livingstone’s cameo sealed the deal for PBKS.

Brief scores: DC: 174/9 [ Shai Hope 33, Ishan Porel 32*; Arshdeep Singh: 2/28] lost to PBKS 177/6 [Sam Curran 63, Liam Livingstone 38*; Kuldeep Yadav 2/20] by four wickets. 

Being forced to bat first after Punjab Kings won the toss, David Warner and Mitchell Marsh gave Delhi Capitals a flying start before Arshdeep Singh removed the latter in the fourth over. The former continued the good momentum with Shai Hope joining him, to sum up a 54-run powerplay before getting out to Harshal Patel in the eighth over. Subsequently, Rishabh Pant came in to bat after a gap of 454 days but looked rusty, following Hope in a space of two overs. Ricky Bhui followed suit in the next over with the score reading 111/5 and the Punjab bowlers capitalized on the exerted pressure to extract three more wickets in the next 17 balls for just 19 runs. With 149/8 in the 19th over, PBKS were in the driving seat before impact player Abishek Porel slammed three fours and two sixes in the last over to propel the scoreboard to 174/9 in 20 overs. 

Similar to their counterparts, the Kings got a rollicking start as openers Shikhar Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow extracted 24 runs off the first seven legal deliveries. However, the Delhi bowlers pegged back at them with Ishant cleaning up Dhawan (22) in the fourth over and inducing a run out in his next over to remove Jonny Bairstow. Unbothered by the setbacks, Prabhsimran Singh and Sam Curran orchestrated boundaries to pile up 60 runs inside the powerplay. The spin duo of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav regulated the next four overs with authority by conceding just 27 runs for the loss of Prabhsimran. With Kuldeep being a constant from one end, the leggie went on to outwit Jitesh Sharma in the 12th over before finishing off with figures of 4-0-20-2 as the score read 112/4 in 14 overs. Eventually, Curran switched gears with two fours and a six against Mitch Marsh while Liam Livingstone took Khaleel to the cleaners to curtail the equation to 28 needed off 18 balls. The pair whacked Marsh for 18 runs in the next over before Khaleel Ahmed brought the Capitals back into the contest with a couple of wickets in the 19th over. With six runs required from the last over, Capitals’ only bowling option Sumit Kumar was smashed for a six over deep midwicket after a couple of wides, leading the Kings to their first points in IPL 2024.

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