It has been an eventful seven weeks of Tata Indian Premier League 2022 action that the Punjab Kings have been a part of. We’ve seen old players perform in the PBKS jerseys once more, newer players become favourites, and some records being set in the Punjab Kings camp this year.
Despite the team not having answers to all the questions the tournament threw at us, we still ended up with lots of positives to cherish and celebrate.
Below are our best takeaways of the Tata IPL 2022 season.
Two resounding debutants
Vaibhav Arora with the ball and Jitesh Sharma with the bat have been exceptional as debutants. The duo played their first IPL match against Chennai Super Kings at Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium, which PBKS won by 54 runs.
Jitesh Sharma contributed 26 off just 17 in a telling debut, taking the team to 180/8 after the fall of Liam Livingstone (60 off 32). He was impressive behind the stumps too, with acrobatic catching and sharp use of DRS. Vaibhav Arora, who did his job in the second innings, took out Robin Uthappa and Moeen Ali to topple CSK’s top order and finish with numbers 4-0-21-2.
Biggest win by runs
PBKS’ biggest win in terms of runs was by the margin of 54, which they achieved twice in the course of 14 matches. The first instance was against CSK in the aforementioned match, where English batter Livingstone was awarded the player of the match for his speedy 60.
The second instance was against RCB, where PBKS put on a first innings score of 209/9 in 20 overs. The game was when Jonny Bairstow found form with a 66 (29), and was aided by Livingstone’s 70 (42) to put up a massive score for RCB to chase down. However, Rabada’s three-wicket haul and two each for Rishi Dhawan and Rahul Chahar restricted RCB to just 155/9.
Biggest win by wickets
Punjab Kings beat the Gujarat Titans comprehensively by eight wickets having closely lost their first encounter to a six off the last ball. The Titans set a score of 143/8 in 20 overs after Rabada picked 4/33 in his four overs, and Sandeep Sharma gave GT only 17 runs in his quota of the game.
After losing Jonny Bairstow early, the Kings hardly broke a sweat, with Shikhar Dhawan (62 off 53) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (40 off 28) pulling things in PBKS’ favour steadily before Liam Livingstone (30* off 10) quickly finished the game with four overs left.
Liam Livingstone’s 117m maximum
The explosive English batter smashed a monster six measuring 117m in PBKS’ second game against the Gujarat Titans. This happened in the 16th over, when the Kings needed just 27 off the last five overs, chasing down GT’s 143/8.
Livingstone, on 2* (4) at the beginning of the over, scored 6, 6, 6, 4, 2, 4 to win the game for the Kings in a flash. The first among the hat trick of sixes came off an in-angling delivery bowled to length by seasoned bowler Mohammed Shami. Clearing the front leg, Livingstone gave his bat one mighty swing to send the ball a whopping 117m over deep square leg!
Brilliance on the field
While the season saw some fine fielding efforts from the team, two moments stand out in particular: Harpreet Brar’s catch at the ropes against RCB and Liam Livingstone’s caught and bowled against CSK.
Brar was standing guard at the deep mid-wicket boundary when Hasaranga’s slog sweep almost made it across the ropes above the fielder. Brar, however, did a full stretch to grab the ball over his head, threw it up before he landed across the boundary line, and came back into the field to complete the catch!
Livingstone’s return catch was also as magical as Brar’s attempt. Bowling to Dwayne Bravo, he sent down a leg-break length ball, which the CSK batter tried to defend. However, it popped off the edge of his bat, sending it well wide of Livingstone. However, a massive dive and an incredible amount of quick thinking, accompanied by a safe pair of hands ensured Bravo had to walk back!
These were our picks for the best moments of the Tata IPL 2022 for the Punjab Kings! Tell us yours!
