Punjab Kings skipper Shikhar Dhawan played one of the finest knocks against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2024 but still faced a loss
Shikhar Dhawan is known for making runs back-to-back and is one of the highest run-getters in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL) with a total of 6,469 runs under his name from 209 matches. He has hit two centuries and 49 half-centuries till now in his IPL career. Punjab Kings Skipper Shikhar Dhawan got close to his third century in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday evening match i.e. on 9th April 2024. But remained not out on 99 in match number 14 of the IPL 2024 season.
Shikhar’s inning was the reason Punjab got to put in a decent total against the Sunrisers. They were struggling so much that at one stage they were at 88 runs when 9 wickets were gone, but Shikar’s knock helped the team to get back on its feet and jolted out a total of 143 runs for 9 wickets.
They also created history by getting the highest number of runs for the 10th wicket partnership. But this too wasn’t enough to stop the Sunrisers Hyderabad as a result Punjab Kings saw an 8-wicket loss. Even the opponent team’s head coach and former West Indies captain Brian Lara was also blown away by the type of anchored innings and grit shown by Dhawan through his knock. He said that he never saw any such innings in T20 Cricket ever and heaped praises on Shikhar.
Although Punjab didn’t win the match, Shikhar’s fabulous innings became the highlight of it. Even the West Indies Cricketer and Jio Cinema IPL Expert Chris Gayle too was truly gushing about Shikhar’s performance and said that as the wickets were falling quickly for Punjab, they needed someone to stick around and anchor the inning. And Shikhar did just that which was commendable, and it was one of the best innings in the IPL history, he added.
In response, Sunrisers Hyderabad put up a very clinical performance where Rahul Tripathi took all the stress away with his impressive knock of 74 runs from 48 balls. Although SRH’s openers are still a concern because Harry Brook hasn’t been at the top. And Mayank Markande shined in the balling unit by taking 4 wickets for the team, Marco Jansen and Umaran Malik took two wickets each. And Bhuvaneshwar Kumar took 1 wicket.
JioCinema IPL Expert Aakash Chopra also was full of praises for Tripathi’s pressure-releasing knock. He said that he was impressed by the type of mature innings that Tripathi played, and the way he handled the pressure. He also highlighted the fact that this year Tripathi came in as a capped Indian player which is a promotion. He showcased his capability and responsibility in the innings as an Indian-capped player.
From Punjab’s point of view, there were not many runs to defend but the pace of taking wickets was also slow which became an advantage for the Sunrisers. Punjab King’s bowling unit was struggling only Arshdeep Singh and Rahul Chahar were able to take 1 wicket each. And all other bowlers remained wicketless.
Although the Sunrisers won the match the Player of the Match (POTM) award went to Shikhar Dhawan for his one-man army show, generally, the player from the winning team wins the POTM award, but Shikhar’s knock was something that stood out and was worth acknowledging.
