Mohali, May 3 (PTI) Uncapped Jitesh Sharma matched senior pro Liam Livingstone with flair and flamboyance as the duo stepped up in style in the back end to propel Punjab Kings to a fighting 214 for three against Mumbai Indians, here on Wednesday.
Livingstone raced to season’s first fifty in 32 balls and ended up being the top-scorer with 82 not out (42b), studded with seven boundaries and four sixes.
Giving Livingstone a perfect support, PBKS glovesman Sharma continued to impress as he remained unbeaten on 49 (27b) in a 119-run fourth wicket partnership that came off just 56 balls.
Livingstone was at his furious best when he smacked his English teammate Archer for three sixes in a row in the 19th over.
There was no slam-bang approach but sheer orthodox hits on both sides of the wicket from the Vidarbha keeper-batter.
Sharma looked fluent be it from the deceiving spin from Chawla or sheer raw pace from Archer as he hit five fours and two sixes, only to remain stranded one run shy of a maiden IPL fifty.
MI was letdown big time by their English pace ace Jofra Archer who looked rusty and conceded 56 from his full quota.
MI again lost out in the back-end and ended up giving away 115 runs from 48 balls to concede a fourth successive 200-plus score At 99/3 in 12 overs after Chawla’s tidy spell of 2/29, MI looked to have tightened the noose after Rohit Sharma opted to bowl in his 200th match for MI.
The duo of Livingstone and Sharma stepped up in style in the next over when they took Archer to cleaners in an over that yielded 21 runs.
Coming back from an injury, Archer looked rusty and bowled a waist high full toss which would have been a nasty blow but his English teammate managed to put it away.
Sharma then unleashed his fury smashing Archer four boundaries to get into the groove.
On batting-belter, Chawla (2/29) smartly varied his pace and quietly did his job, dismissing a dangerous-looking Shikhar Dhawan (30; 20b) and Matthew Short (27; 26b) in the middle overs.
Having got a reprieve on 23, Dhawan started to break the shackles and stepped out Chawla for a boundary over the bowler’s head.
Dhawan tried to repeat the same in the next delivery but this time the veteran legspinner had the last laugh when he outfoxed the lefthander, altering his length.
Fresh from their humdinger of a win against Chennai, PBKS could not find their mojo up front after Rohit Sharma opted to bowl.
Returning to the same venue where their bowlers were hammered by Lucknow Super Giants to post a mammoth 257/5, PBKS started on a jittery note.
Prabhsimran Singh got out in the second over, while Dhawan as always was a slow-starter.
Source: PTI News
