Shikhar Dhawan laments the lack of a good off spinner following PBKS’ defeat over KKR. – ‘I feel that we don’t have a good off-spinner’. By five wickets, KKR defeated PBKS.
Punjab Kings captain Shikhar Dhawan made a daring claim during a five-wicket loss to Kolkata Knight Riders on May 8. He said that the club lacks a quality off-spinner. And that this is one of the reasons why they are surrendering so many runs in nearly every game.
The opener also mentioned how difficult it was to bat on the Eden Gardens surface and praised Arshdeep Singh for his outstanding bowling in the last over, which left KKR needing only six runs to win. His first five deliveries were perfect, but Rinku Singh’s boundary in the penultimate ball, which helped KKR win their fifth game in IPL 2023, caused the bowler to err in his line and length.
“Feels bad, of course not feeling great. Not an easy track to bat on, in the end they played well. It was a great effort from Arshdeep, the way he has bounced back from the last game. All credit to him that he took the game to the last ball. I feel that we don’t have a good off-spinner. When left-handers come, from one end we have a leg-spinner and at the other end we have a left-arm spinner,”
Dhawan said.
“So that’s where I feel we are leaking a bit of runs. This wicket was offering turn as well so I feel that’s where we took the hit,”
he added.
Read also: IPL 2023: Arshdeep Singh was moved to tears following Rinku Singh’s exploits at Eden Gardens.
In City of Joy, Rinku Singh and Andre Russell steal the show.
KKR were under extreme pressure to reach their 180-run target since the home team was often losing wickets. But this time, Andre Russell responded to the situation, played some outstanding cricket, and scored 42 runs off only 23 pitches to help KKR get back into the game.
Along with him, Rinku Singh once more became well-known after scoring 21* runs off of 10 balls, including a boundary on the very last delivery. With that, KKR successfully chased down the enormous total, moving up to fifth place on the IPL points table while Punjab Kings fell to seventh.
Read also: Mohammad Kaif: It demonstrates how confident Rinku Singh is when he asks a finisher to rotate striking in the fifth ball.