Punjab Kings (PBKS) started their IPL 2023 season on a high on Saturday with a close win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). It was a rain interrupted game but PBKS were dominating when play stopped and eventually won the encounter to get two points on the board. Meanwhile, their new skipper Shikhar Dhawan entered the record books while he was batting and equalled Virat Kohli in a unique IPL record. The left-hander has been playing the cash-rich league since the inaugural season in 2008 and owns a lot of records.
On Saturday, Dhawan was involved in the 94th half-century partnership in the history of IPL. He stitched 86 runs for the second wicket with Bhanuka Rajapaksa and equalled Virat Kohli in this regard. Both Dhawan and Kohli are at the top spot for being involved in the most half-century partnerships in IPL. Suresh Raina is at the third place with 83 such partnerships and David Warner is at the fourth position with 82 partnerships of 50 or more runs. Warner had a chance to equal Raina in the game against Lucknow Super Giants but there was no half-century partnership in the entire DC innings.
As far as the match is concerned, PBKS batted well after losing the toss posting a huge total on the board. Dhawan played second fiddle during his partnership with Rajapaksa. The PBKS captain scored 40 runs off 29 balls while Rajapaksa played a sparkling knock of 50 runs off 32 balls. Though none of their batters played a big knock, almost every player scored with brilliant strike-rate making a contribution to team's score. PBKS posted a big total of 191 runs for the loss of five wickets in their 20 overs.
In response, KKR were struggling right from the word go. Andre Russell smashed 35 runs off 19 balls to keep the side in the hunt but once he got out, the target seemed improbable for KKR. Rain arrived after 16 overs in their innings when they were 146/7 and the team was 7 runs short on the DLS par score at that point. The match never resumed and PBKS registered their first win of the season.
