Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain Shikhar Dhawan admitted that the turning point of the match was the dropped catch of Virat Kohli early in the innings, and they paid the price for it.
Dhawan made this statement after PBKS' 4-wicket loss to the RCB in the 6th match of the ongoing IPL 2024 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Chasing a target of 177 runs against the PBKS, Kohli edged the second ball from Sam Curran in the first over, but the ball burst through Jonny Bairstow's hands at first slip, and went for a boundary.
After that breakthrough, Kohli took the most advantage of it and went after PBKS bowlers during the powerplay. The former RCB skipper displayed one of his best performances by scoring 77 runs off 49 balls to steer his team to a four-wicket win with four balls to spare on Monday, March 26.
Reflecting on the narrow defeat, Dhawan admitted that PBKS came up short by 10-15 runs, and the dropped catch by Kohli played a major role in his team’s first defeat in the ongoing IPL 2024.
Shikhar Dhawan said in the post-match presentation: “It was a good game, we brought the game back, and again we lost it. We scored 10-15 runs less, in the first six overs I played a bit slow. Those 10-15 runs cost us and the dropped catch as well.”
Speaking about the turning point, he noted: “Virat scored 70-odd runs and we dropped a catch of the class player, we paid the price. If we had taken that catch, the momentum would have come from the second ball. But we lost the momentum over there and then we paid the price for that.”
Dhawan also heaped praise on his bowler Harpreet Brar (2/13) for his wonderful bowling efforts, which kept PBKS in the game against the RCB in Bengaluru.
He signed off by saying, “He's bowling really well, especially bowling against left-handers, tremendous the way he soaked in the pressure and got us the breakthroughs. It's a very big thing in Punjab, the Kabaddi thing, the people really connect with that thigh-five, happy to see him do it.”
(With IANS/PTI Inputs)
