Punjab Kings made a winning start at their new home Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, Chandigarh in the 2024 edition of the IPL as they beat the Delhi Capitals by four wickets on Saturday, March 23. Despite the last over burst by Abishek Porel for the Capitals, the Kings would have fancied their chances to chase down 175 runs and they did despite losing wickets regularly in the middle as the partnership of Sam Curran and Liam Livingstone did enough to get their team home, with the latter finishing it off with a six.
Punjab began their innings rapidly with skipper Shikhar Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow going after Khaleel Ahmed before Ishant Sharma provided some control and dismissed the opposition skipper. Bairstow too got run out soon as the hosts found themselves in early trouble before a promotion for Sam Curran worked wonders for the Kings. Curran and impact sub Prabhsimran Singh took Kings' innings forward as the target wasn't a big one and they had already gotten a fast start.
With the batting to come, they could always play the waiting game and it eventually worked out outstandingly well for the Kings. Curran slowly got his eyes in and was getting towards his fifty but losing two wickets again in quick succession threatened usual Punjab collapse but it wasn't to be as the English duo of Curran and Livingstone calculated and executed the chase to perfection.
Curran brought up his fifty while Livingstone waited for his chance to attack. Both played out Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, who were bowling really well and waited for the DC pacers to come, who were already a bowler short after Ishant Sharma suffered an ankle injury while fielding.
Khaleel Ahmed, debutant Sumit Kumar and Mitchell Marsh at death weren't going to be great options and Curran and Livingstone expectedly went after them. Khaleel was able to pick a couple of wickets in the 19th over including Curran but it was already too late as Marsh gave away 18 runs in the 18th over.
Livingstone finished it off with a six as Delhi Capitals will be ruing their selections and sweating over Ishant Sharma's fitness.
Earlier, the Capitals too got to a fantastic start with David Warner and Mitchell Marsh. However, losing 5 wickets for 44 runs in the middle overs didn't help even though Shai Hope on his IPL debut did recover well after a slow start. Harshal Patel on his Punjab Kings debut was the pick of the bowlers for the home team before Abishek Porel ruined it all for him and his side. Porel in a surprising move by the Capitals came in as an impact substitute and smashed 25 runs off the last over of Harshal to help DC reach a respectable total of 174 runs, but it wasn't enough eventually.
Curran was the player of the match for the Kings scoring 63 off 47 as Capitals in the absence of Anrich Nortje and Jhye Richardson struggled with their bowling options.
