Pacer Arshdeep Singh as soon as once more proved his value after his spell helped Punjab Kings defeat Kolkata Knight Riders, of their marketing campaign opener of IPL 2023 on Saturday. Playing in Mohali, PBKS posted a whopping complete of 191/5 in 20 overs after being requested to bat first. Later, KKR have been batting at 146/7 in 16 overs when the rest of the match received known as off resulting from heavy rain and PBKS have been declared as winners by 7 runs (DLS methodology). Out of the seven wickets that fell for KKR, three have been scalped by Arshdeep, which included the likes of Mandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, and Venkatesh Iyer. However, the 23-year-old pacer not solely made headlines for his distinctive bowling but additionally for the unusual send-off, which he gave to Roy after dismissing him.

In the 2nd over of KKR’s chase, Arshdeep bowled a brief supply to Roy, to which the batter performed a shot however did not time it appropriately. Resulting which, the ball landed safely into the arms of Sikandar Raza on the mid-wicket and Roy needed to depart for 4. As Roy was making his method again to the dugout, Arshdeep was seen giving a dying stare to the KKR batter.

After the match, Arshdeep opened up on his response and instructed Star Sports, “He (Anukul Roy) was my batch mate in under-19 cricket. He started to hit me straightaway so I wanted to show aggression. He was also showing aggression so my aggression also came out a bit. Players are expecting that I will bowl yorkers so I tried to surprise them a bit by bowling bouncers.”

“There was some rain around so the wicket had become skiddy, so I was using making use of the conditions on offer. I am enjoying myself and the atmosphere in the dressing room is very good. Going ahead, we will try to keep enjoying and keep winning games for our side,” he added.

Coming to the match, Punjab Kings’ costliest recruit Sam Curran dismissed the damaging Andre Russell on the nick of time to make sure a seven-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders by way of Duckworth-Lewis methodology in a rain-hit afternoon encounter of Indian Premier League in Mohali on Saturday.

Chasing a goal of 192, KKR have been left stranded at 146 for 7 after 16 overs when heavy downpour put spanner on their onerous work. The DLS par rating at the moment was 153.

Had KKR not misplaced Russell (35 off 19 balls), who was trying to stroll away with the sport after which Venkatesh Iyer to Arshdeep Singh within the subsequent over, the par rating would have been decrease earlier than heavens opened up.

The two wickets within the fifteenth and sixteenth over proved to be decisive as KKR wanted 46 off 24 balls at that stage with Shardul Thakur (8 not out) and Sunil Narine (7 not out) have been on the crease.

(With PTI Inputs)