Mumbai: The Punjab Kings' innings had a series of ups and downs -- Liam Livingstone taking on Gujarat bowlers upfront to score 64 from just 27 balls, periodic fall of wickets in between, and a brilliant finish to the show by Rahul Chahar (22) and Arshdeep Singh (10) taking the team to 189/9 at Brabourne Stadium on Friday.
After losing early wickets in Mayank Agarwal (5) and dangerous Jonny Bairstow (8), Shikhar Dhawan (35 from 29) and Livingstone saved PBKS' innings from faltering and steadied the innings that once looked to reach easily in the excess of 180 with Jitesh Sharma (23 from 11) and Livingstone firing from both ends.
In the 13th over, Livingstone brought up his 21-ball 50 as he smashed three sixes and a boundary to score 24 runs in Rahul Tewatia's over. However, debutant Darshan Nalkande took two wickets in successive deliveries of 14th over in Jitesh Sharma and Odean Smith (0) to shake the Punjab side again.
With Livingstone still present at the wicket, it still seemed like a certainty that Punjab would recuperate and put a massive score on the board but Rashid Khan dismissed the former, who tried to take him on the longer boundary by pulling a skid-ish delivery.
Despite of it all, with 164/9 at the end of 18 overs, Chahar and Singh batted for the next two overs that were laced with boundaries setting a target of 190 for the Pandya-led side.
Brief Score:
Punjab Kings - Liam Livingstone (64 from 27), Shikhar Dhawan (36 from 30); Gujarat Lions - Rashid Khan - 3/22.
