Sports
Shashank Singh special guides Punjab Kings to record chase
Punjab Kings, powered by Shashank Singh’s knockout blows, recorded a thrilling final-over victory over Gujarat Titans which gave them their second win of IPL 2024.
He might not have been the Shashank Singh that Punjab Kings were searching for in the auction, but over the course of this season and particularly on Thursday (04), he has made himself an undroppable name in the eleven. Shashank came in when the Kings had lost four for just 70 in the ninth over but remained unfazed right through to inject some much-needed impetus. He lofted Noor Ahmed’s googly for a six and then picked 14 off three deliveries from Umesh Yadav to get his innings going. Another six off Rashid and a ramp off Mohit Sharma kept Punjab in the chase. In between the Kings were lucky to have some support from others like Jitesh Sharma who hit back-to-back sixes off Rashid at a critical juncture.
The final trick up Punjab Kings’ sleeves was the impact sub Ashutosh Sharma, who matched Singh in shot-making including three boundaries off an over from Azmatullah Omarzai. The duo also picked up 18 off the penultimate over bowled by Mohit with each batter hitting him for a six with brute power. The equation trickled down to 7 off the last over, which was given to Darshan Nalkande who hadn’t bowled an over until then. While he dismissed Sharma caught at long on, the luck was with Singh who got an outside edged boundary before sneaking a leg-bye off the penultimate ball.
It brought about a thrilling conclusion to a game that had otherwise meandered along on a straight course with the Titans the favourites right through until the Kings sneaked back in.
Shubman Gill was there right through the innings but not quite so imposing. He batted all 20 overs but faced only 48 balls in all. But it was studded with some eye-catching shots nevertheless. The first six down the ground off the left-arm spinner was as silken as lofts down the ground come. Then there was an intentional outside edge that was chopped fine using Arshdeep Singh’s angle across. He would also loft Kagiso Rabada straight down the ground for a six once and then pull him over long on for one more, there was also a forehand slap down the ground for a four off a slower ball for another boundary. All of these were indicative that the pitch did not hold much demons but also that Gill could unleash a good range of strokes enroute to his 89* – the highest individual score of IPL 2024.
All through his innings, Gill found the others doing commendable jobs at the other end. While Wriddhiman Saha and Kane Williamson (playing his first game of IPL 2024 replacing the injured David Miller) didn’t last too long, they were around long enough to stitch together stands worth 29 and 40. Sai Sudharsan, playing with more intent this time, matched Gill shot-for-shot at one point in his 19-ball 33 with six boundaries. But his cameo came to an end as he guided Harshal Patel to the wicket-keeper. Gujarat headed into the death overs in dire need of a boost and Rahul Tewatia provided the right finishing touches, albeit feasting on some friendly full tosses that enabled him to an 8-ball 23. And even as Gill missed his hundred, falling short by 11, his team had got to nearly 200, which would prove to be a lot more than just challenging for Punjab Kings.
Despite losing Shikhar Dhawan early after he chopped on against Umesh Yadav’s first ball, Punjab were still in the chase thanks to Jonny Baairstow’s early flurry of boundaries. The opener got going as he pinged the cover boundary repeatedly with Azmatullah Omarzai offering some width. He had some support from an adventurous Prabhsimran Singh but that changed around swiftly. Noor Ahmed struck with his first ball bowling Bairstow through the gate and had Singh caught at point off an outside edge to rattle Punjab, who then found enough firepower in their lower middle-order to steal a sensational win.
Punjab Kings will head home to Mohali where they will take on the in-form Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 9. Gujarat have a two-day gap where they’ll travel to take on Lucknow Super Giants on April 7.
Brief Scores:
Gujarat Titans 199/4 in 20 overs (Shubman Gill 89*, Kane Williamson 26, Sai Sudharsan 33, Rahul Tewatia 23*; Harpreet Brar 1-33, Kagiso Rabada 2-44, Harshal Patel 1-44) lost to Punjab Kings 200/7 in 19.5 overs (Jonny Bairstow 22, Prabhsimran Singh 35, Shashank Singh 61*, Ashutosh Sharma 31; Azmatullah Omarzai 1-41, Umesh Yadav 1-31, Rashid Khan 1-40, Noor Ahmad 2-32, Mohit Sharma 1-38, Darshan Nalkande 1-06) by 3 wickets
Rain in Bulawayo allowed just ten overs of action between Bangladesh and New Zealand .
The match began an hour later than scheduled, and as a 47-over contest after Bangladesh opted to bowl. Iqbal Hossain Emon cleaned Hugo Bogue up for 8 in the second over, but just as Aryan Mann and Tom Jones steadied New Zealand, rain returned, only for no play to be possible after that.
It was New Zealand’s second washed-out game in a row, and they will hope to beat India in their final group game so that they don’t have to depend on the result of the Bangladesh-USA match to progress to the Super Sixes.
No result: New Zealand 51 for 1 vs Bangladesh
The first over of the 202 chase set the tone for what followed as Australia cruised past Japan at the Under19 World Cup in Windhoek. Will Malajczuk smashed Nikhil Pol for 14 runs, and never looked back, racing to a 23-ball fifty and a 51-ball hundred as Australia chased down the target with eight wickets and nearly 20 overs to spare to seal a Super Sixes berth.
By the time Japan finally got rid of Malajczuk, he had thumped 102 off 55 balls, with 12 fours and five sixes. He brought up his half-century midway through the sixth over, by which point Australia were already 66 for 0, with Malajczuk contributing 57 of those runs off 26 balls. At the other end, his opening partner Nitesh Samuel scored 7 from ten deliveries.
The pair added 135 for the first wicket, with Malajczuk doing the bulk of the damage as Samuel settled into a calmer role. While Malajczuk fell shortly after reaching his hundred, Samuel carried on to bring up his fifty off 62 balls in the 25th over and finished unbeaten on 60. He had scored an unbeaten 77 against Ireland in Australia’s opening game of the tournament.
Earlier, Japan were content to take their time after opting to bat. HUGO Tani Kelly was once again their standout, following up his 101 not out against Sri Lanka with an unbeaten 79. Japan, however, slipped from a position of stability to lose four wickets for 13 runs in a middle-order collapse, during which legspinner Naden Cooray struck three times.
Tani-Kelly added 72 for the seventh wicket with Montgomery Hara-Hinze before Japan eventually finished on 201, although 30 extras from Australia played its part. The target hardly bothered Australia, whose win makes both teams’ next group game a dead rubber.
Brief scores:
Australia Under 19s 204 for 2 in 29.1 overs (Will Malajczuk 102, Nitesh Samuel 60*; Nihar Parmar 1-35) beat Japan Under 19s 201 for 8 in 50 overs (Hugo Tani-Kelly 79*; Naden Cooray 3-31, Will Byrom 2-32) by eight wickets
(Cricinfo)
There is officially a traffic jam in the WPL points tale. A day after RCB qualified for the playoffs, Delhi Capitals (DC) captain Jemimah Rodrigues led her team over the line in a tense and hard-fought chase to extend Mumbai Indians’ (MI) losing streak to three games in a row. That means all four teams apart from RCB now have four points each after DC lifted themselves off the bottom to push Gujarat Giants down to fifth.
Chasing 155 on a slow Vadodara track, DC saw Rodrigues walk out needing 71 off 58 balls. The MI bowlers then dried up the boundaries by taking the pace off on a pitch keeping a little low as well and forced Rodrigues and Laura Wolvaardt to mostly trade in singles and doubles. Rodrigues, however, kept finding the boundaries – square and behind square – to bring the equation down to a more comfortable 27 from 18. She placed the ball in the gaps for three more boundaries before Marizanne Kapp smoked a six to seal victory with an over to spare.
MI were earlier restricted after another slow powerplay with the bat. Once the openers failed again, Nat Sciver Brunt did the heavy lifting once more with an unbeaten 65 after Harmanpreet Kaur fell for 41, as Shree Charani’s 3 for 33 dented MI while they looked to press the pedal. But the total wasn’t enough as almost all DC batters got going and Rodrigues scored her maiden fifty of the season and as WPL captain.
Even though MI stuck to their opening pair from the last game, it didn’t change their powerplay fortunes. They continued to be the worst performing team in that phase, with a score of 23 for 2 against the DC quicks who kept aiming for the stumps. With some movement with the new ball, Nandani Sharma knocked over S Sajana’s off stump in the fourth over and Kapp had Hayley Matthews’ middle stump knocked back by two balls later.
The run rate was starting to plummet further as Sciver-Brunt kept finding the fielders and Harmanpreet got off to her usual slow start of 5 off 13. Until spin was introduced. Harmanpreet found the boundary twice as soon as Shree Charani erred with her lengths, including a trademark inside-out drive over the covers. Sciver-Brunt started to pepper the leg-side fence, and she stylishly brought up the half-century stand and push the run rate over six with an inside-out drive for the first six of the innings.
Just when Harmanpreet had started to turn into Harmonster with three consecutive fours off Shafali Verma square of the wicket, DC dented MI’s middle order. The big wicket came through Shree Charani who had Harmanpreet hole out to long-on for 41 off 33 and even though Sciver-Brunt kept finding the boundaries regularly around the park and brought up her 11th WPL half-century – joint most with Meg Lanning – and third of the season, Shree Charani’s double-wicket 18th over that went for just four runs rocked MI again. After just 11 runs in the 18th and 19th overs, Sanskriti Gupta’s last-ball six helped MI collect 13 from the last over to post 154, their lowest total this season.
DC had the kind of powerplay MI can only dream of this WPL. The MI bowlers strayed often with their lines and Shafali and Lizelle Lee pulled and punched with confidence for boundaries to try and wipe out a good chunk of the target in the first six. They collected three fours each off Nicola Carey and Sanskriti in the second and sixth overs respectively, and the others in between for two fours each. With 57 smashed in the powerplay, DC had brought the asking run rate down to seven an over.
WPL debutant and left-arm spinner Vaishnavi Sharma, a replacement for the injured G Kamalini, started to loop deliveries from wide of the crease that made DC’s job tougher to dispatch the ball to boundaries. Amanjot Kaur was frugal too and she accounted for Lee with a stumping through a wide down leg, although it took several replays for the third umpire Ajitesh Argal to conclude Lee’s bat was in the air and foot on the line when the bails came off. The boundaries dried up for 20 balls, the equation became a stiff 51 off 36, but Rodrigues was determined to see the chase through.
She scooped, swept, reverse swept – all while staying low on the pitch – and smacked a six over midwicket to not let the pressure get to her. One of her shots even had Wolvaardt run-out at the non-striker’s end with a deflection off Sciver-Brunt’s hand, but Rodrigues kept her nerve to beat the defending champions.
Brief scores:
U – 19 world Cup: Rain disrupts New Zealand vs Bangladesh game in Bulawayo
U – 19 World Cup: Will Malajczuk’s 51-ball century helps Australia blow Japan away
Rodrigues holds nerve as Delhi Capitals hand Mumbai Indians third straight loss
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