Twenty20 nomad Liam Livingstone justified his Rs 11.50 crore price-tag with a smashing all-round show while rookie seamer Vaibhav Arora announced his arrival on the big stage during Punjab Kings' comfortable 54-run decimation of Chennai Super Kings in an IPL match on Sunday (April 3).
Livingstone with a 32-ball-60 laid the platform but Chennai Super Kings bowlers made a brilliant comeback at the death, restricting Mayank Agarwal led side to 180 for 8 after 20 overs.
Right after collecting the 'Player of the Match' award Livingstone said that it feels good to contribute to a win.
"The first two games hadn't gone my way. Good to contribute to a win. Thought the boys did brilliantly. We got to a target which we thought was defendable and our seam bowlers were outstanding in the powerplay. Got to try as smart as we can. All our conversations have been 'try and be as exciting as we can'. Nice to get a few today. I've been swinging hard enough, nice to get a couple off the middle today," Livingstone said in the post match presentation.
Later, little known Himachal Pradesh seam bowler Arora (4-0-21-2) performed as if he owned the stage, dismissing Robin Uthappa and Moeen Ali with CSK managing only 126 in 18 overs at the end of the chase.
After his batting, Livingstone (3-0-25-2) then became man with a "golden wrist" as his leg breaks got him a couple of wickets and he also took the final catch to cap off a dream night.
"You don't need to remind me about it (his IPL record previously). Struggled with RR as well last year. Nice to have a performance like this. Bowling is something I really enjoy. Something I've spent a lot of time on. Been nice to contribute. Hopefully as the tournament goes on, my spin comes into play. I also bat in the nets with Odean Smith, he's got me covered by a long way, trust me. I'm sure he'll get going at some point and you'll see why," he added.
This is CSK's third defeat in as many games and unless Deepak Chahar makes a speedy comeback, things aren't looking great for the 'Yellow Brigade' and its de-facto skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Meanwhile, Punjab Kings now have two wins out of three matches they have played so far in the IPL 2022 as they sit fourth on the points table.
