Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone shine for Punjab Kings in Rishabh Pant’s comeback match

PBKS vs DC, IPL 2024 Synopsis: As in the past, both teams threatened to let the game slip out of their control but Sam Curran and Liam Livingstone would usher Punjab past Kuldeep Yadav’s threat, helped along by two drop catches.

Sam Curran’s night and two drops

It’s in the admirable shot-selections and game sense he showed that Sam Curran won the night for Punjab Kings. Until he went for the glory shot in the 19th over, with just 8 runs needed from 10 balls, losing his stumps to Khaleel Ahmed, and dragging his team towards the brink before Liam Livingstone ensured Punjab would chase down the 175-run target with four balls to spare.

Until that moment though, he realised all he had to do was to play out Delhi Capitals’s best bowler Kuldeep Yadav.

With Ishant Sharma already hobbling off the field after two fine overs with the new ball due to an ankle injury while fielding, Curran’s punt proved absolutely spot on.

Kuldeep Yadav made just one error against him — a rare shortish ball in his first over which Curran pulled to the boundary. With Kuldeep correcting his length, Curran never took any chances, tapping him around for singles.

Kuldeep would entice him into a big shot in his final over, the 14th of the chase, with a ripping leg break and Curran would miscue it toward long-on where Tristan Stubbs did all the running but couldn’t hold on to a low dipping chance.

Curran did what he does: holding his shape, pouncing on either the short or the very-full ball. Mitchell Marsh would offer both varieties and the ball was thrown back from the boundary. In the interim, he kept plugging the singles, rotating the strike, and waiting for his moment. With just 11 runs needed from 10 balls, he went for the big heave-ho but lost his stumps, triggering panic in the camp.

Khaleel, who had had a bad outing until then with the ball as he leaked 28 runs from his first two overs with the new ball, fired a bouncer at Shashank Singh to induce a top-edge from a weak pull that was snapped up by Rishabh Pant.

Another dot ball later the equation read 10 from 7 when Delhi dropped their second catch. This time surprisingly by David Warner. Khaleel had dug another one at back of length and Harpreet Brar flat-batted it weakly towards long-off where Warner had it all covered or so it seemed until the ball popped out of his palms. Khaleel would hold his head and sink to his knees.

The medium pacer Sumit Kumar started the last over with two wides and Livingstone smoked a length ball into the long-on stands to wrap up a low-quality game.

Kuldeep’s threat

Punjab Kings needed 108 runs off 78 balls with 8 wickets intact when Pant signalled Kuldeep Yadav to come to bowl in the chase. A few days earlier, Kuldeep would tell this newspaper about his increased confidence and enjoyment these days at reading batsmen a lot better these days. He once again showed it on the field.

His first punt went wrong. After bowling two fuller-length balls to the left-handed Sam Curran, he tried to slip in a skidder from back of length but it was pulled to the square-leg boundary. The rest of it though all came off brilliantly.

In his next over, 10th of the innings, he ripped a googly outside off, and Prabhsimran Singh, Punjab’s impact player for the day, slugged it straight to long-on. He kept it up to Curran from then on, just eking out singles to the left-hander. In his third over, 12th of the innings as Pant bowled him four on trot, he delivered another flighted googly and had Jitesh Kumar swishing and missing a reverse sweep; Pant did the rest with a quick stumping.

Rishabh Pant was instrumental in sending back Punjab Kings’ Jitesh Sharma for just nine runs with an incredible stumping. (PHOTOS: Screengrab via JioCinema, Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

Kuldeep would have nailed Curran as well in his final over with a 79kmph leg break that was weakly slugged out to long-on where Tristan Stubbs failed to hold on to a low dipping catch. At the end of the over, after figures that read 4-0-20-2, Kuldeep walked off the field; he would perhaps have known the value of that missed catch that turned the game Punjab’s way.

Punjab’s death bowling woes

They had pulled Delhi back from 74 for 1 at one stage in the 8th over to 147 for 8 with just 9 balls left for the innings to end. Delhi did a wise move, getting in Abhishek Porel in the 18th over as the impact player instead of the regular move of bringing in a bowler that the teams batting first tend to do at that late stage, and Porel smashed Harshal Patel for 25 runs in the final over.

A short ball, first up, was pulled for a four; a slower ball, the usual Harshal fare, was tonked over midwicket boundary; short ball on the hips pulled to backward square-leg boundary, and a normal-paced back-of-length ball eased deftly to third man boundary and the fifth ball, a slower one, was smashed over square-leg boundary for the second six of the over. However, with Ishant’s injury and the catching mess-ups, Delhi would flounder in the chase.

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