Punjab Kings (PBKS) suffered a three-wicket defeat at the hands of Gujarat Titans (GT) in Match 37 of the IPL 2024 season at Mullanpur on Sunday (April 21).
Opting to bat first, Punjab’s innings folded for a below-par 142 in 20 overs. Prabhsimran Singh was the top scorer with 35 off 21 balls.
In reply, the Titans kept losing wickets at regular intervals but they eventually chased down the target with five deliveries to spare. While Shubman Gill (35) and Sai Sudharsan (31) chipped in with crucial thirties at the top, Rahul Tewatia stayed unbeaten on 36* off 18 balls to take GT over the line.
This was Punjab's six defeat in eight games this season. They are currently holding the ninth spot in the 10-team points table.
In the absence of injured Shikhar Dhawan, Sam Curran has taken over the leadership duties but has failed to impress with both bat and ball.
The all-rounder was dismissed for 20 off 19 balls against GT, in a match where he also opened the innings for PBKS. With the ball, he conceded 18 runs in his two overs and managed to claim one wicket.
Speaking on Cricbuzz, former India opener Virender Sehwag slammed Punjab’s batting approach and questioned their decision to not promote in-form batters higher up the order.
Sehwag was also critical of Curran's role in the side and shared a stern message for the PBKS management.
"If I was in the PBKS dugout, I would not even pick him in my team, neither as a batting all-rounder nor as a bowling all-rounder. I wouldn't pick him," Sehwag said.
"A player is not of any use, if he can bowl a bit and bat a bit. You either bat properly and win us the match, or you bowl and win us the game. This bits and pieces part I don't understand," he added.
In eight innings this season, Sam Curran has managed to amass only 152 runs at a strike rate of 116.03 with one half-century. In the bowling front, he has picked 11 wickets for PBKS.
After losing to GT, Curran conceded that they were 10-15 runs short of an ideal total. He also stated that Punjab performed poorly after the powerplay, and they now themselves in a do-or-die situation.
“I think so (we were 10-15 short). The effort with the ball was incredible, the commitment and fight was amazing, but it was not enough. The Afghanistan spinners are world class bowlers and Sai Kishore bowled really well, credit to them. That is the third time we have used that pitch, anything above 160 would have been a par total but we still fought well. Prabhsimran played really well in the powerplay but unfortunately we lost a cluster of wickets after that. Now we know what to do, we have to win every game,” Curran said in the post-match interaction.
