Punjab Kings (PBKS) opener Shikhar Dhawan achieved a major record against five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 champions Mumbai Indians (MI) at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune. Dhawan became the highest run-scorer against the Mumbai-based franchise in the history of IPL. The Indian opener went past former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batter Suresh Raina on the list.
The list of highest run-scorer against MI is now led with Dhawan, followed by Raina (824 runs), former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batter AB de Villiers (785 runs) and former RCB skipper Virat Kohli (769 runs). Only Kohli is capable of going past Dhawan on the list as Raina was not picked in the IPL 2022 mega auction whereas De Villiers retired from all forms of cricket after IPL 2021.
Before the game, Dhawan needed 14 runs to get past Raina. The left-handed batter achieved the milestone in the six over of PBKS' innings with a boundary off Tymal Mills. He reached his half-century from 27 deliveries, his first of the season
He shared a 97-run partnership with skipper Mayank Agarwal, who scored 52 runs from 32 runs after a dry run in the season. The 97-run stand is also the highest opening partnership by a team against Mumbai in the ongoing season.
In the first four matches, Dhawan had scored 127 runs at an average of 31.75. Recently, the 36-year-old also became the first Indian to score 1,000 boundaries in the T20 format. He will have his eyes set on another record. Before the game, he needed 89 more runs to become second Indian batter after Kohli to score 6,000 IPL runs.
In the previous season, he scored 587 runs from 16 games at an average of 39.13 including three half-centuries and a high score of 92 for Delhi Capitals (DC). He was not retained by the Delhi-based franchise. Later, he was picked for Rs 8.25 crore by PBKS after an intense bidding war with DC.
