Punjab Kings defeated Faf du Plessis-led Royal Challengers Bangalore in their opening game in style. Sri Lanka’s Bhanuka Rajapaksa and India’s Shikhar Dhawan played an instrumental role in helping Punjab Kings win the thrilling match.
Both the cricketers scored 43 runs each and turned the game on its head. Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Shikhar Dhawan have been receiving praises from all corners for their crucial contribution to Punjab Kings’ victory.
Later, during the postmatch presentation, Rajapaksa heaped praises on the whole team for a collective win. He hailed Shikhar Dhawan for his aggressive play that came out in the middle. He said:
“What we thought was that we’d just have a free hit. Shikhar wanted me to be aggressive although I had just come out to the middle. I knew how Hasaranga bowls. It was about knowing him and playing him for the last 4-5 years now. I bought my local knowledge and it worked. This win is a huge confidence booster. ”
Bhanuka Rajapaksa also revealed how the movie ’14 Peaks’ inspired the whole Punjab Kings’ franchise. He also said that the credit of the win should also go to the bowlers to restrict them to 200 runs. He added:
“We watched this movie called ’14 Peaks’ and we have 14 games. Every game is a batter’s game. The credit should go to the bowlers to restrict them to 200. But in the middle-overs we gave away around 130 runs in the last 8-9 overs, ”
Talking about the game, earlier Faf du Plessis (88 off 57), Virat Kohli (41 not out off 29), and Dinesh Karthik (32 not out off 14) played brilliant knocks which powered Royal Challengers Bangalore to 205-2 against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the third match of the IPL 2022 at DY Patil Sports Academy. However, the RCB bowlers couldn’t restrict the Punjab Kings’ batters to take the game away.
Punjab Kings’ managed a remarkable win as they chased down the score of 200 plus runs with an over to spare.
