Punjab Kings bagged their second win of the tournament as they were successful in beating the defending champions, Mumbai Indians comprehensively, thanks to a rippling knock from their skipper, KL Rahul. It was a sublime knock of 60 runs that made the proceedings seemingly easy on a dicey surface to bat on.
However, before Rahul dished out his masterclass, it was the Punjab bowlers who posted an exceptional display to restrict the Indians to a modest 130. A batting line-up that comprised the likes of big-hitters like Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, and Hardik Pandya, came a cropper to a much disciplined Punjab bowling line-up. If there was one young man who galvanized the entire bowling unit of the Kings, it was their off-spinner, Ravi Bishnoi, who chronicled stunning figures of 2 for 21.
Bishnoi had a sublime 2020 too that saw him manifesting himself as a reckoning force in the Punjab ranks. However, as 2021 kicked off, he was benched for the first few games which seemed like an inexplicable move for the franchise.
Even in the preceding season, Punjab chose to drop Gayle until the latter half of the tournament and that cost them dearly. Similarly, in this season, they axed Bishnoi for the first few matches and the results simply refused to bow down in their favour.
KL Rahul in his post-match presentation confirmed, “He (Ravi Bishnoi) unfortunately missed the first few games. He has been working really hard with Anil Bhai and there were a few things that he needed to correct. He’s been somebody who is brave, that’s very good to see for a spinner.”
Punjab will definitely be thanking their stars as they chose to play this youngster who managed to leave a significant mark on the power-packed batting unit as he managed to string the big wicket of Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan. All the while he carried on with his bowling, he only leaked 21 runs in the process.
This is what KL Rahul had to say about bowling first in Chennai
The Chennai surface has behaved in the weirdest manner until now and teams batting second have often found it difficult in chasing down the totals that have been posted in the first inning irrespective of how paltry or modest they have been.
It was interesting to see that Rahul opted to bowl first winning the toss despite knowing of the possible ramifications that could have followed. When asked about why he wanted to bowl first, he cited, “Me and coach had a long chat about batting second. I felt that the wicket was sticky and in the first few games, we batted first, and I felt like the bowlers were always under pressure, and it is important that they bowl on a wicket like this early. We had heard there’s a lot of dew at night. It was our first-night game here. The first game we played here was in the afternoon, so we didn’t really know how much dew, but watching games from Mumbai, we knew there’s going to be a lot of dew.”
Rahul expected the surface to improve in the second half but much to his woes, the track remained the same. However, given an exceptionally low total on the cards and a few controlled strokes from Rahul, the proceedings went extremely slick and comfortable for the Kings.
