Ravichandran Ashwin took a brutal dig at former England cricket team’s star batsman Kevin Pietersen after a world record chase was completed during the match between the Punjab Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on April 26 was.
The Punjab Kings won the toss and elected to take first place in the game. They made a change to the playing eleven by bringing in Jonny Bairstow for Liam Livingstone. KKR also made a change and replaced the injured Mitchell Starc with Dushmantha Chameera.
Phil Salt and Sunil Narine, the Kolkata Knight Riders openers, batted first and nullified the Punjab Kings’ bowling attack. They played attacking cricket throughout their stay in the middle. After Phil Salt (75) and Sunil Narine (71) got out, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell and Shreyas Iyer came on and made quick runs to guide KKR to their highest ever score at Eden Gardens – 261/6.
Jonny Bairstow and Prabhsimran Singh pursued the target and laid the foundation for a victory with an attacking brand of cricket. The duo took the bowlers to the cleaners and ensured PBKS stayed in the game. Prabhsimran was eliminated after 54 points but Jonny Bairstow remained unbeaten until the end. The English batsman smashed a brutal 108 runs and Shashank Singh hit a sensational 68 runs as PBKS pulled off the biggest run-chase in the history of T20 cricket with 8 wickets in hand and 8 balls remaining.
During the game on air, Kevin Pietersen said that the boundaries at Eden Gardens were normal size and Ravichandran Ashwin took to X to react to his statement with laughing emojis.
“The commentator just said that these are normal height limits at Eden Gardens,” Ravichandran Ashwin pointed out Kevin Pietersen’s on-air comments and posted them on his official X-handle.
The commenter just said these are normal size limits at Eden Gardens😂😂😂. #KKRvsPBKS
– Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) April 26, 2024
Before the historic chase by PBKS, the record for the most successful chase in the IPL was held by Rajasthan Royals in the IPL and South Africa in T20 cricket.
Successfully pursuing the highest goals in the IPL
262 – PBKS vs. KKR, Kolkata, 2024
224 – RR vs PBKS, Sharjah, 2020
224 – RR vs. KKR, Kolkata, 2024
219 – MI vs CSK, Delhi, 2021
Highest goals successfully pursued in men’s T20 cricket
262 – Punjab Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders, Kolkata, IPL 2024
259 – South Africa vs West Indies, Centurion, 2023
253 – Middlesex vs Surrey, The Oval, T20 Blast 2023
244 – Australia vs. New Zealand, Auckland, 2018
243 – Bulgaria vs. Serbia, Sofia, 2022
He gave me complete freedom – Shashank Singh in PBKS coach
After the match, one of the heroes of the Punjab Kings in the dull IPL 2024 campaign – Shashank Singh – said he knew the ball was coming to the bat well and he was ready to beat the bowlers. He said:
“When I was in the dugout I was just watching the behavior of the pitch and feeling that it was developing well and bouncing back well. I just concentrated on hitting the other bowlers and was happy to be able to take the singles and doubles off Narine. We wanted to outplay him.
Shashank Singh revealed that PBKS coach Trevor Bayliss has given him full freedom to play his natural game. Shashank Singh also praised Jonny Bairstow and said that they can still qualify for the playoffs.
“He gave me complete freedom (via coach Trevor Bayliss) and told me to play the way I can. It’s a big plus when Jonny (Bairstow) supports you (from the other side), he’s played 100 Test matches and you can see that. “When he claps for you, you’ll feel happy and vindicated. We still have five games left, we will take it one game at a time and I believe we can still qualify for the playoffs.