The city of Mumbai has been witnessing a surge in the temperatures with heatwave like conditions prevailing across the financial capital of India. After hosting the game between LSG and Mumbai on Sunday the Wankhede stadium played host to PBKS vs CSK game on Monday. PBKS were placed at 8th place in table just a place above CSK who were in 9th. CSK won the toss and chose to bowl first as CSK went in with the same team as the one that played against Mumbai. PBKS made 3 changes with Sandeep Sharma and Rajapaksa coming in, while Rishi Dhawan played his first game for 6 years.
Rajapaksa given an early life –
Sri Lanka international Rajapaksa who made a great start to his PBKS career was warming the benches for last few games. The burly Sri Lankan walked into bat at number 3 after the fall of Mayank Agarwal for 18. With Rajapaksa on 1 the left hander went for a slog sweep off CSK captain Ravindra Jadeja. The ball went through the fingers of Mitchell Santner and went for a boundary as Jadeja and Dhoni stared in disbelief.
— Rishobpuant (@rishobpuant) April 25, 2022
Shikhar Dhawan powers PBKS to 187
After the loss of Mayank Agarwal, the left handed duo of Dhawan and Rajapaksa added 110 for the 2nd wicket. Both the batters were aggressive with their footwork and went after the CSK bowlers. The stand was broken when Rajapaksa holed out to Shivam Dube off Dwayne Bravo for 42. Rajapaksa’s runs came off 32 balls with the help of 2 fours and 2 sixes. Dhawan though was in a zone of his own as he cut, pulled and flicked the bowlers with ease. He even played a few ramp shots much to the delight of the PBKS fans. Dhawan was not out on 88 off 59 balls with 9 fours and 2 sixes. Liam Livingstone hit a quickfire 19 off 7 balls with a four and 2 sixes, while Bairstow was not out on 6 off 3 balls with a four to help PBKS reach 187.
Twitter reacts to the costly drop –
The catch dropped off Rajapaksa proved to a costly miss as the left hander from Sri Lanka went onto score a crucial 42. The fans took to twitter and wrote about how Jadeja dropped a catch off the Kiwi and now the left arm spinner from New Zealand was paying him back. Many of the tweets showed their disappointment with the effort by the normally safe fielder Santner.
Santner must've made Rajpaksha as his captain in Dream 11.#IPL2022
— gurudattaaa (@gurudattaispog) April 25, 2022
Nope going right into the hands, shouldn't be a tough one for santner he is a good fielder
— Koushik Reddy (@Kowshik04616113) April 25, 2022