The Punjab Kings (PBKS) defeated Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the eighth match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, which turned out to be an absolute thriller at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on Wednesday.
Put into bat, Prabhsimran Singh showed his ‘A-Game’ as he smashed 60 runs off just 34 balls with 7 fours and 3 sixes. Similarly, veteran skipper Shikhar Dhawan also sizzled with the bat and remained unbeaten with 86 runs off 56 balls with 9 fours and 3 sixes. The duo helped Punjab Kings post a challenging total of 197/4 in their 20 overs.
In response, the Royals started well with contributions from Sanju Samson (42 runs off 25 balls) and Shimron Hetmyer (36 runs off 18 balls) but lost wickets at crucial intervals. Dhruv Jurel played a quickfire knock of 32 runs off just 15 balls towards the end and took the game down to the wire, but it wasn’t enough as RR fell 5 runs short of the target, finishing at 192/7 in their 20 overs.
For Punjab Kings, Nathan Ellis was the pick of the bowlers as he picked up 4 wickets for 30 runs in his quota of 4 overs. Likewise, Arshdeep Singh took 2 wickets for 47 runs.
Here is how Twitter reacted:
Game Set Match 🔒#RRvPBKS #JazbaHaiPunjabi #SaddaPunjab #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/1Ne0WuxCpr
— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) April 5, 2023
Punjab vs Rajasthan has always been a thriller and the game lived upto that hype. Congratulations @PunjabKingsIPL #IPL2023 #RRvsPBKS
— Ridhima Pathak (@PathakRidhima) April 5, 2023
Balle balle. Buraaaaaaaah #PBKS #PBKSvsRR
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) April 5, 2023
Dhruv Jurel is a star, what a fight back, 32* runs from just 15 balls when Rajasthan was down & out.
He will do wonders in future for this franchise. pic.twitter.com/wwRFUAxnQQ
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) April 5, 2023
Punjab Kings beat Rajasthan Royals by 5 runs in a last over thriller. #cricket #rrvspbks #ipl #ipl2023 | #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/FtqxKEUOxe
— CricketTimes.com (@CricketTimesHQ) April 5, 2023
Shikhar Dhawan’s innings will raise, should raise, the question of whether you can have an anchor batter, especially in these conditions. You can appear to have increased your strike rate by the end, but the 30 balls at run-a-ball can hurt.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 5, 2023
Shikhar Dhawan trolling Rajasthan Royals’ bowlers with unorthodox shots. #RRvPBKS pic.twitter.com/4PIb481Fvj
— Anurag Dwivedi 🏏 (@AnuragxCricket) April 5, 2023
Shikhar dhawan in today’s match:#RRvPBKS pic.twitter.com/vTuPYNyG9F
— Prayag (@theprayagtiwari) April 5, 2023
Top knock from Shikhar Dhawan – 86* (56) with 9 fours and 3 sixes. A splendid show by the captain, he held one end brilliantly.
Superb knock, Gabbar! pic.twitter.com/SdS6D9fz2l
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) April 5, 2023
Shikhar Dhawan in first 30 balls: 30 runs.
Shikhar Dhawan in next 26 balls: 56 runs.One of the greatest knock of Dhawan in IPL .#RRvPBKS pic.twitter.com/zg0D7PGhKt
— Sir BoiesX 🕯 (@BoiesX45) April 5, 2023
Shikhar Dhawan after every 2 balls pic.twitter.com/k07j1yaoMP
— 亗 𓃟 (@jadejamayur010) April 5, 2023
Shikhar Dhawan 🔥#RRvPBKS pic.twitter.com/AnpnOfsjjv
— Arun Singh (@ArunTuThikHoGya) April 5, 2023
2 minutes 30 seconds for the the wide review which was which ultimately judged incorrectly! #RRvPBKS #widereview #TATAIPL2023
— Tom Moody (@TomMoodyCricket) April 5, 2023
That’s that from Match 8. @PunjabKingsIPL win their second game on the trot as they beat #RR by 5 runs.
Scorecard – #TATAIPL #RRvPBKS #IPL2023 pic.twitter.com/R9j1jFpt5C
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 5, 2023