Punjab Kings (PBKS) missed the services of their skipper Shikhar Dhawan in the home game against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on April 20 as they lost the match by 24 runs. This was the second match Dhawan missed due to a shoulder injury he sustained on April 13 against Gujarat Titans (GT).
Dhawan is the leading run-scorer for PBKS with 233 runs from four innings and his absence hurt PBKS in the run chase of 175. After the match, PBKS fielding coach Trevor Gonsalves gave an injury update as he said, "It should take around 2-3 days more".
The injury update means that PBKS may be without his services against Mumbai Indians (MI) on April 22 at Wankhede Stadium.
Despite a 137-run opening partnership between stand-in skipper Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis, PBKS bowlers made a comeback and restricted their score to 174/4. Gonsalves felt that PBKS should have been able to chase it down.
"It was a good wicket to bat on. We got them at a god enough score, but we lost a few wickets early on,” he said.
On the other hand, RCB bowling coach Adam Griffith lauded Mohammed Siraj who registered his IPL career-best bowling figures of 4/21.
“He (Siraj) is one of the best in the world at the moment,” he said.
“Even in the last game where (almost) 440 runs were scored, he went for (just) 30. Not just today, he has been bowling well for the whole tournament and even before that. We saw how well he was bowling for India.
"He is our leader and sets the tone upfront with the ball and it is no coincidence that our powerplays have been so good with the ball so far in the tournament,” he added.
Griffith felt that Siraj was spot on with his length as he refrained from pitching it up in an attempt to swing the ball.
"He is still swinging it from that really aggressive length that the batter cannot get in or get down to drive him. His ability to get the ball come back into the right-hander and go across the left-hander has been a real showcase for him,” he explained.
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