Punjab Kings captain Shikhar Dhawan produced a brilliant outing in the side’s second match of the 2023 Indian Premier League against Rajasthan Royals, as he scored an important half-century for the side. Shikhar Dhawan is the most expensive player. He is the highest paid cricketer in the team of Punjab Kings.
Dhawan put out a strong innings of an unbeaten 86 in 56 balls, smashing 9 fours and three sixes en route the knock as the PBKS reached a mammoth score of 197/4 in 20 overs. With his half-century knock in Guwahati, Dhawan entered an elite list of batters for an enormous feat in the IPL.
Before this match, only two batters had registered fifty or more 50+ scores in IPL history; on Wednesday, Dhawan became the third entrant to the elite list. David Warner (60) and Virat Kohli (50) had reached the mark thus far.
Shikhar Dhawan
Dhawan had made a slow start to his knock against the Royals, scoring only 14 off 13 deliveries in the powerplay as Prabhsimran Singh did a majority of the hitting. The youngster reached his half-century in the very next over of the innings, as Dhawan continued to bid time on the crease. Following the dismissal of Prabhsimran and Bhanuka Rajapaksa’s injury (he was hit by a shot from Dhawan), the PBKS captain shifted gears.
He largely attacked spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (1/50), eventually reaching the half-century mark in 36 balls. During the 18th over of the game, Dhawan had also attempted a brilliant switch-hit against Jason Holder; he picked pace following the fifty-run mark, scoring the remaining 36 runs off the next 20 deliveries.
Earlier, Samson had won the toss and opted to bowl at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. This is RR’s first game in the IPL 2023 at this ground; interestingly, this is also the home stadium for Riyan Parag, the Royals all-rounder who hails from Assam.
Both, RR and PBKS had won their respective first matches of the season; while Samson-led Royals thrashed Sunrisers Hyderabad by 71 runs in their opening match, Shikhar Dhawan’s PBKS defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 7 runs (DLS method) on Saturday.