Punjab Kings defeated Rajasthan Royals in their second match of IPL 2023, on Wednesday, In the game played at Barsapara Cricket Stadium, PBKS skipper Shikhar Dhawan and bowler Nathan Ellis guided the team to their back-to-back win in the tournament, While Dhawan remained unbeaten at a score of 86 runs, Nathan Ellis took a four-wicket haul. Coming to bat first, PBKS scored 197/4 in 20 overs. In response, Sanju Samson-led RR managed to score 192/7. PBKS won the match by 5 wickets.
Rajasthan Royals needed 18 runs to win in the last over. Skipper Shikhar Dhawan handed the ball to Sam Curran the bowler brilliantly defended 18 runs. Due to his impressive bowling, Punjab Kings managed to take back the game which Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Juvel tried to snatch away in the last overs.
RR sent Ravichandran Ashwin to open in place of Jos Buttler but he could not even open his account. At the same time, young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was able to score only 8 runs. After this, captain Sanju Samson and Jos Buttler tried to handle the innings, but Rajasthan's innings fell apart as soon as Buttler was dismissed. Butler scored 19 runs and Samson scored 42 runs. At the same time, Devdutt Paddikal played an innings of 21 runs. Riyan Parag managed to score 20 runs.
Shimron Hetmyer batted brilliantly. The bowlers of Punjab Kings were struggling in front of his fiery batting. At the same time, Dhruv Jurel supported him in the best way. After the fall of 6 wickets, both these batsmen won the hearts of everyone with their batting as Hetmyer scored 36 runs and Dhruv scored 32 runs. Rajasthan Royals needed 18 runs to win in the last over. Skipper Shikhar Dhawan handed the ball to Sam Curran the bowler brilliantly defended 18 runs. Due to his impressive bowling, Punjab Kings managed to take back the game which Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Juvel tried to snatch away in the last overs.
Nathan Ellis did an amazing job for Punjab Kings. He won everyone's heart with his bowling as he took a 4-wicket haul. Arshdeep Singh got 2 wickets.
Punjab Kings set a target of 198 runs after coming to bat first. Prabhsimran Singh and Shikhar Dhawan played brilliant innings for Punjab Kings. Prabhasimran scored 60 runs, Dhawan scored 86 runs. On the other hand, Jitesh Sharma contributed 27 runs. Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Sikandar Raza and Sam Curran were dismissed for just one run each. Jason Holder took the maximum 2 wickets for Rajasthan. Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin got 1 wicket each.
Interestingly, it is only the the third time in the history of the IPL that PBKS have won their first two matches. The other seasons when they won their first two games consecutively was in the year 2014 and 2017.
