It was a case of so near yet so far for Punjab Kings as they couldn't chase down the 183-run target against the Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday (April 9). They lost the match by just two runs despite needing 78 runs off the last five overs. Once again, it was the duo of Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma - heroes of their win over Gujarat Titans - who took them close when they needed 29 runs off the last six balls.
In the same match, SRH all-rounder Nitish Reddy starred with the bat smashing 64 runs off just 37 balls propelling his side to a competitive total of 182 runs in their 20 overs. It has been a season of unknown players performing in the cash-rich league and Shashank Singh attributes it to a lot of hard work behind the scenes and in domestic cricket. He also reckons that having self belief is what drives such cricketers including him and eventually, they reap rewards like he is doing currently in IPL 2024.
"The only thing is self-belief. Like the way we play domestic cricket. Like you see SRH's Nitish (Reddy) here. He usually scores and takes wickets in white-ball and red-ball cricket (in domestic competitions). You can say these players are unknown but they are known players in the domestic circuit. They did well in the domestic circuit and their performances in IPL are a reward of that (hard work). You need to continue your domestic performance here. Cricket is a game of self-belief at this level," he said.
Shashank backed up his unbeaten 61-run knock against GT by with another 46* off just 25 deliveries to boast his finishing skills. However, he and his team fell short by a couple of runs this time around. "We lost the match by two runs but the most painful thing is to lose a match because we play to win. A defeat is a defeat whether it is by two runs or 20 runs. I must credit Ashutosh for turning the match, the way he batted in the last over. We had belief till the second-last ball that it is possible.
"We did a lot of match simulation in the camp before the IPL. We (Ashutosh and I) used to shuffle between 5 and 6 in the batting order. We had been given a lot of scenarios like 60 or 70 off five overs and we chased that target a lot of times. So we always had the belief," Shashank further added.
