IPL 2022: Match 48, GT vs PBKS – Full List of Award Winners, Player of the Match, Who Said What

PBKS got back to winning ways by beating Gujarat Titans.

Published - 04 May 2022, 00:03 IST | Updated - 04 May 2022, 00:03 IST

4 Min Read

The Punjab Kings avenged their heartbreaking reverse fixture loss by getting the better of an in-form Gujarat Titans by eight wickets in Match 48 of IPL 2022 at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on May 3. Despite the loss, GT continues to be the table-toppers, having registered eight wins from 10 games.

Gujarat skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bat first. They lost opener Shubman Gill owing to an unfortunate runout. Veteran wicketkeeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha (21) got off to a good start but could not convert that into an impactful knock. The Titans then lost their middle-order cheaply as neither one in Rashid Khan, David Miller, and Rahul Tewatia could perform well. Sai Sudharsan’s unbeaten 50-ball 65 helped GT post a respectable total of 143/8.

Shikhar Dhawan shines in PBKS run chase

In reply, Jonny Bairstow was yet again dismissed cheaply, but the duo of Shikhar Dhawan and Bhanuka Rajapaksa added 87 runs for the second wicket before the latter was dismissed for 28-ball 40. Dhawan was then joined by Liam Livingstone who remained unbeaten along with him and helped Punjab Kings in getting past the line with four overs to spare. Livingstone’s 117 meters six is what stood out the most in the contest. He was not out on a 10-ball 30 while Shikhar remained unbeaten on 62 runs from 53 deliveries.

Losing skipper, Hardik Pandya said:

“We weren’t even close to a par score. 170 would have been ideal, but we kept losing wickets regularly and never came anywhere near it. I backed ourselves with the bat, batting first wasn’t a wrong call, we needed to come out of our comfort zone (which was chasing targets). We have chased well in this tournament, if required (later on in the tournament), we had to know how to set targets. This is part of a learning curve, but this is all about learning to come out of our own comfort zone. We were always talking about getting better even when we were winning, we would talk about things that didn’t go our way (today) and would look to come back better in the coming games. We have another game in a couple of days, we need to regroup, winning and losing is a part of sport.”

Winning skipper, Mayank Agarwal said:

“We would like to string a few (wins), no better time than getting a few wins back-to-back. We are trying to get the best out of Jonny. He’s done well opening. I said, ‘It’s okay, I’ll bat at four, I’ll anchor the innings at four’. With Livi it was clear, Shikhar to bat through and Livi could go out and play the way he wants to play. It was nice the way he played, got the score quickly. When we got to that position, two points are almost clear, if we can score it as quickly as possible, we could also improve the Net Run-Rate. I thought we bowled exceedingly well, we got early wickets and choked them in the middle. That really helped us to restrict them to a below-par score. The partnership between Shikhar and Bhanu was crucial for us.”

Player of the Match, Kagiso Rabada said:

“Finally we got the win. After being a bit inconsistent, we just wanted to string a couple of wins under our belt. We bowled well to restrict them. Our batters did the job. As a team, we had a good outing. You can’t get too greedy, you need to stick to your basics, that’s what I tried to do. (On Arshdeep) He’s got a lot of nerve, he has shown that, especially in the death overs. He reads the game well, he’s able to execute his skill and he’s done it game in game out. He knows what he wants to work on, I am not saying too much to him. As a bowler, you have to bowl in all stages of the game. It’s about figuring out how to be the most effective in each stage of the game.”