If it was their bowling in the first match against RCB, it is their batting in the second match that has let Punjab Kings down versus Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday evening at the Wankhede.
On the very first ball of the match, Mayank Agarwal, the Punjab Kings skipper, decided to show his intentions as he made room for himself against the in-form swinging Umesh Yadav. However, that was that for the PBKS captian ad Umesh trapped him lbw on the last ball of the over.
Shikhar Dhawan and Bhanuka Rajapaksa, though, seized the momentum with Dhawan hitting Umesh for a six down the ground before Rajapaksa tore into young Shivam Mavi, taking the seamer for 4, 6, 6, 6. Mavi, however, had the last laugh as he got rid of the dangerous Sri Lankan batsman.
KKR bossed the game from thereon. Tim Southee had Dhawan edging through to the wicket-keeper; the veteran New Zealand seamer brought up his famed three-quarter delivery to dismiss the left-handed opener.
Then it was the KKR spinners – Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine – who tied down Liam Livingstone and Raj Bawa. The Englishman tried to take the attack to the opposition, but Iyer brought back Umesh and the Vidharbha speedster struck immediately in his second spell, having Livingstone caught at the boundary line.
Bawa’s off-stump was knocked off by Narine before Southee returned to send back Shahrukh Khan for a duck. Umesh completed his spell with two more scalps: Harpreet Brar, bowled, and Rahul Chahar, caught in the slip fending off a short ball.
This collapse – 62/2 to 102/8 – wasn’t, though, entirely surprising as PBKS, just like Kolkata Knight Riders, boast of a spate of power-hitters and someday the quick wickets was gonna come – as it did for KKR against RCB.
Later, when Kolkata Knight Riders came out to chase the target of 138 runs in 20 overs as Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer opened with the bat. Though, it looked like an easy chase however KKR hadn’t thought that they’d lose four wickets during the chase. Rahane, 12(11), and Venkatesh 3(7) were dismissed early in the powerplay, courtesy to Kagiso Rabada and Odean Smith.
Captain Shreyas Iyer started off well but he had to walk back before but had to walk back scoring 26(15). He smashed five fours coming off his bat. However, it was Sam Billings and Andre Russell who held the game strong for KKR and scored the winning runs.
Amid this jaw-dropping show – of brilliant bowling from KKR and match unaware batting from PBKS – social media had their fun too as fans came up with hilarious memes trolling the Punjab team.
Here are some of the best memes on Punjab’s batting malfunction tonight:
Pic 1 :- Pbks Fans before Russel Came to Bat
Pic 2 :- Pbks fans after Russel Came To Bat #IPL2022 pic.twitter.com/8ulttY9VyZ— ASmemesss (@asmemesss) April 1, 2022
Summary of today’s match between Veer & Zaara #KKRvPBKS pic.twitter.com/nxtD5qSmUh
— ᵀʰᵒʳ (@Stormtweets_) April 1, 2022
Punjab always play an elaborate April Fools Day prank at the auction which gets revealed in April. pic.twitter.com/mqALLnvpp8
— Manya (@CSKian716) April 1, 2022
Andre Russell the muscle power pic.twitter.com/bQzJV6vQhr
— Manoj Pareek (@mrpareekji) April 1, 2022
Highlights of today’s #KKRvsPBKS match pic.twitter.com/SoyZDYrC1N
— Kisslay Jha?? (@TrollerBabua) April 1, 2022
Harsha Bhogle: we need a satellite to track that 6 from Russell.
Cameraman who just captured that: pic.twitter.com/0LY9dHY06r
— Godman Chikna (@Madan_Chikna) April 1, 2022
enjoying full on Andre Russell slapping bowlers into oblivion pic.twitter.com/GVJJvhlyJG
— best girl | IPL era? (@awkdipti) April 1, 2022
#UmeshYadav this year in #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/7wWLY0ukHK
— memes_hallabol (@memes_hallabol) April 1, 2022
Statue of Destruction #RCBvKKR pic.twitter.com/Tw3MNT7vhE
— Raghav Masoom (@comedibanda) April 5, 2019
Also Read: Umesh Yadav Made A Big Statement After His Heroics Against Punjab Kings
