The Punjab Kings (PBKS) went down by 15 runs in a dramatic game against Delhi Capitals (DC) on Wednesday night in the scenic stadium in Dharamsala. This loss has dented Punjab’s hopes of reaching the playoffs significantly and this would mean that have to depend on plenty of other results to go their way to make it into the final four.
On the back of attacking performances from DC’s top 4 – the highest of which was Rilee Rossouw’s 82* off 37 balls with the help of 6 fours and 6 sixes – DC put up 213 runs on the board.
That seemed enough until DC dropped a couple of crucial catches, including that of Liam Livingstone and missed running Livingstone out. The Englishman made DC pay heavily for those misses as he smoked 94 runs off 48 balls, clattering 5 fours and 9 sixes, to drag the game till the last over. However, the target proved just a bit too much for even Livingstone and PBKS lost by 15 runs in the end.
Can Punjab Kings (PBKS) still reach playoffs?
Are Punjab Kings (PBKS) out of playoff race?
With 12 points in 13 matches, Punjab Kings are still hanging by a thread in the playoff race. They need to win their last game by a big margin and hope for RCB, MI, to not go beyond 14 points and have their NRR less than PBKS.
Delhi Capitals, on the other hand, had already been eliminated from the playoffs race.
Losing captain Shikhar Dhawan said: “It was frustrating. We didn’t bowl really well in the first six wickets, we should have taken some wickets the way it was swinging. It’s quite a close game, but can’t help it. There was hope after that no ball, Livi played a great knock, unfortunately we couldn’t end up on the other side. I fell my decision to bowl spin off the last over backfired.
“The momentum also went there. Before that, my fast bowlers got hit for 18-20 runs. Those two overs cost us the game. Our bowlers didn’t pitch the ball up in the powerplay. That was the plan and unfortunately they couldn’t execute. In this sort of a wicket, whether we take wickets or not, we should bowl at the right areas which we are not doing for quite a long time. That’s hurting us. Every powerplay, we have been giving 50-60 runs, we should be taking wickets as well. We knew that it’d swing for 1-2 overs. We lost the first wicket in the 2nd over, I got out and the 1st over was also a maiden – we lost six balls over there.”
Man of the Match Rilee Rossouw said: “Thanks to the support staff. Chuffed that I could perform for the team. As Davey mentioned was a good wicket. Davey put up a good partnership at the top. I enjoyed some momentum coming in. Just shows that this game is not over till the last ball is bowled. Exceptional innings from Liam.”
