Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
It was an eventful evening at the Brabourne Stadium on 8 April, as the Gujarat Titans (GT) secured a thrilling victory over the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the Match 16 of IPL 2022. The middle-order batter of GT, Rahul Tewatia smashed two sixes off the final two balls of the match to seal the third victory for the team.
The PBKS pacer Arshdeep Singh returned as the side’s most economical bowler with 31/0 off 4 overs. He put a brake on the 18th over of the match and gave only 5 runs with his tight line-lengths against both set batters in Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya. Although, the team could not defend 19 runs off the last over, but he was called at a post-match press conference after his impressive performance, and claimed that he has got used to this situation from the last 2-3 editions of the IPL.
"Paaji, the emotions have stabilized now because in the last two-three years with Punjab Kings or Kings XI Punjab there have been a lot of these exciting last-ball, last-over thrillers. So it was nothing special. Whatever the situation, we try to be stable, whether we win or lose we try to keep the team environment stable and enjoy our cricket," Arshdeep said in post-match interview.
Arshdeep was also asked about the decision to give inexperienced Odean Smith, an all-important last over of the match. It was quite evident that the key bowlers of the team, Kagiso Rabada, Vaibhav Arora, Rahul Chahar, and Arshdeep completed their full quota of 4 overs. It all went down to Smith or Livingstone, who had bowled earlier in the match.
Paaji, your question had 'perhaps' in it so 'perhaps if I had bowled...', 'perhaps if I had not bowled...' then anything could've happened. I guess the decision taken at that time was absolutely correct. We can't judge that decision based on the result. We did what felt right in that moment," Arshdeep added.
After this loss, the Gujarat Titans climbed to the second spot, with three wins in three league matches, while Punjab Kings stand at sixth position, with two wins in four fixtures.