Rahul Tewatia vs Punjab is a match-up that PBKS don’t look back on fondly. Tewatia gave them another reason to dislike him as he hit two sixes off the last two balls to chase down 12 runs from two balls. The match was set up for GT by another sublime inning from Shubman Gill, who narrowly missed out on a well-deserved hundred. Let’s look at some of the key moments from match 16 of the 2022 IPL.
Dhawan’s Powerplay exploits
Mayank Agarwal has had a poor tournament with the bat so far. Against a bowling lineup of GT’s quality, the openers needed to lay a solid platform for their explosive middle-order to have a blast. With Agarwal failing once again, the onus was on Shikhar Dhawan to get the PBKS inning going, and he did just that.
Since 2018, Dhawan strikes at 131 in the Powerplay, hitting a boundary every five balls. Against GT, Dhawan outperformed this by scoring at a strike rate of 141.18 and hitting five fours in 17 balls, a boundary every 3.4 balls. His innings complemented Liam Livingstone nicely as he played a perfect supporting role while also following PBKS’ template.
Shahrukh Khan’s lack of game awareness
The 16th over of the PBKS inning was Rashid Khan’s last over of his spell. Before that, he had taken a wicket in his three overs, conceding 19 runs. PBKS were nicely placed at the end of 15 overs, scoring 152 runs at more than 10 RPO. However, Rashid’s last over changed the momentum.
Livingstone was going all guns blazing and backed himself to take on Rashid. He couldn’t execute his shot well, but he wasn’t at fault for wanting to keep the attacking game on. PBKS have a bit of a long tail, with Kagiso Rabada coming in at number eight. Shahrukh Khan had to negotiate just two balls from Rashid, and he would have been facing the pace bowlers of GT, a favourable match-up for him. However, Shahrukh decided to slog Rashid and missed it completely, getting hit on the leg right in front of the stumps. PBKS somehow managed to reach 189 but had Shahrukh been at the crease, they might have added a few more.
Shami’s death-overs brilliance
Mohammed Shami’s bowling in the Powerplay has been brilliant this season. After a Player-of-the-Match performance in GT’s season-opener, where he took three wickets in the Powerplay, Shami hasn’t picked up a wicket in Powerplay in the following two matches. However, he is still effective, not just in the first six overs, but also in the death overs (overs 16-20).
Since 2018, Shami has taken 48 wickets in the death overs in as many games. In a phase of the match where teams are often scoring 15-18 RPO, and sometimes even 20, Shami’s economy rate of 10.42 is outstanding. Shami’s strike rate in the death overs is 9.8, which is the second-best for any bowler in IPL history for bowlers to have bowled at least 30 overs in the death overs.
Even against PBKS, Shami was brilliant. He came back to bowl the last over of his spell in the 18th over and conceded just four runs, even picking up a wicket.